SotP Addenda - Galactic Underworld, Beneath the Façade
by SLotH4
Summary: Documentation piece covering the history, organizations, and important individuals of the criminal elements of the galaxy which includes the Hutt Cartels, the Black Sun, and the Zann Consortium. Set within "Shadow of the Phoenix" and written by my author friend Xabiar. [Zann Consortium Complete]
1. Zann Consortium - History

**SLotH4's Note:** _After only four months of ignoring this in my to-do list, here is the first chapter of **Xabiar's** Zann Consortium piece. For those of you unfamiliar with this organization (like myself, prior to reading this), the Zann Consortium was a massively overpowered faction in the **"Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption"** expansion._

**_Xabiar_**_ is something of a fan._

_UPDATE: Shout-out to **HailToTheKing**/**Throne_Of_Terror** (he goes by both) for the awesome cover-art he made for this. Show him some love, people! He makes cover-art for **Xabiar** as well._

* * *

**SotP Addenda - Galactic Underworld, Beneath the Façade**

* * *

**Operation: Corroded Credit – The Zann Consortium**

* * *

**ALLIANCE INTELLIGENCE SERVICE**

**REQUIRED PERSONNEL AUTHORIZATION: TOP SECRET-GALACTIC**

**OPERATION ID: ZC04500301 – FINAL REPORT**

* * *

**WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AUTHORIZATION TO VIEW THIS DOCUMENT. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT AND PROSECUTION BY INTERNAL OVERSIGHT**

* * *

**DOCUMENTATION INFORMATION**

Operation ID: ZC04500301

Operation Name: Corroded Credit

Operational Division: Organized Crime Observation and Counter-Intelligence

Operation Type(s): Information Acquisition; Penetration; Infiltration; Asset Placement

Document Author: Operation Director Aleena'wari

Document Type: Post-Operation Compilation

Document Iteration: 348

Document Status: Complete

* * *

**PERSONNEL INFORMATION**

Operation Overseer: Aleena'wari, Operation Director

Operation Field Agents/Assets:

\- Kimo Perrenoud | Criminal Client Cover

\- Qi Qala | Consortium Mercenary Corps Infiltrator

\- Zarimirra | Slaver Cover

\- Polli'endea | Slave Infiltrator

\- Ulina Aalani | Slave Infiltrator

\- Allison Monder | Field Interrogator

\- Tarsis Windsor | Defiler Infiltrator

\- Trejam Salis | Asset Management

\- Lional Aeppli | GenoHaradan Asset

Operation Handlers:

\- Asia Jaggi | Field Agents Allison Monder & Trejam Salis

\- Elan Pox | Field Agents Kimo Perrenoud & Zarimirra

\- Mox'eseral | Field Agents Polli'endea & Ulina Aalani

\- Rollinar | Field Agent Tarsis Windsor

\- Olivia Lars | Field Asset Lional Aeppli

AIS Assets Used:

**_Note:_**_ All assets are unidentified per AIS guidelines for operational reports. For explicit details of specific assets, please request access from AIS Asset Oversight. Please see attached log of each instance of assets used in the course of this operation._

\- [23] Unaffiliated Civilian Assets

\- [4] Imperial Civilian Assets

\- [4] Imperial Military Assets

\- [53] Alliance Civilian Assets

\- [14] Alliance Administrative Assets

\- [23] Criminal Assets

\- [18] Hutt Cartel Assets

\- [4] Black Sun Assets

\- [3] Zann Consortium Assets

\- [1] GenoHaradan Asset

\- [9] Bounty Hunter Assets

AIS Assets Acquired:

\- [4] Alliance Administrative Assets

\- [37] Zann Consortium Assets

\- [16] Criminal Assets

AIS Assets Lost:

\- [17] Alliance Civilian Assets

\- [6] Alliance Administrative Assets

\- [10] Hutt Cartel Assets

\- [4] Bounty Hunter Assets

Operation Field Agent Status:

\- Kimo Perrenoud **[ACTIVE – RECALLED]**

\- Qi Qala **[ACTIVE – MAINTAINING COVER]**

\- Zarimirra **[ACTIVE – RECALLED]**

\- Polli'endea **[DECEASED – PROTOCOL 4]**

\- Ulina Aalani **[ACTIVE – RECOVERED]**

\- Allison Monder **[ACTIVE – RECALLED]**

\- Tarsis Windsor **[DECEASED – PROTOCOL 4]**

\- Trejam Salis **[ACTIVE – RECALLED]**

\- Lional Aeppli **[ACTIVE – DEEP COVER]**

* * *

**OPERATION INFORMATION**

Organization of Focus: The Zann Consortium | Independent

Objective: To gather a sufficient amount of information to achieve a complete and thorough understanding of the structure, capabilities, training, competence, motivations, goals, leadership, and intelligence capabilities of the Zann Consortium, as well as determine the extent of possible corruption of Alliance military, civilian, and administrative institutions and worlds.

Secondary objectives include the insertion of additional assets into the criminal underworld of the Hutt Cartels, Black Sun, and Zann Consortium, as well as a more thorough understanding of the relationship between these criminal organizations. Information on the extent of Zann Consortium corruption on other institutions such as the Fellan Imperium is also desired.

Operation Procedure: Upon commencement of this operation, Operational Director Allena'wari assumed command with the express directive to uncover the extent of Zann Consortium influence and corruption within the Galactic Alliance. The scope of operation CORRODED CREDIT was further expanded as more information about the Consortium came to light, specifically their connections to other criminal syndicates.

Please note that 'Consortium' will be used as shorthand for the Zann Consortium. It is not affiliated in any way with the Hapes Consortium.

This operation was carried out through a series of phases over a six-year period, with a primary focus in the Outer Rim and Alliance territory. Investigations within other groups were also conducted during this timespan, but were not the focus of the operation. Time was needed to establish criminal covers and background, as there are very few high-level criminal assets within the Outer Rim, and the Consortium in particular.

**Phase 1A** consisted of the initial gathering of information on the Consortium as it related solely to Alliance interests. Utilizing a significant amount of Alliance assets, we were able to determine that the Consortium had a far more extensive stranglehold on certain senators – as well as administrative and business individuals – than we had anticipated.

It became extremely apparent that we were highly ignorant as to the inner workings of the Consortium, and as such, expanded the operational objectives to prioritize the penetration of the organization itself. Focus on Alliance penetration shifted from expose and arrest to evidence gathering and monitoring and penetrating known Consortium rackets and marking compromised individuals for future.

**Phase 1B** focused on the infiltration of the criminal elements of the Outer Rim. Field Agents Qala, Perrenoud, and Zarimirra were deployed with the express purpose of exploiting the most likely vectors of entry to the Consortium and were supported covertly in sanctioned criminal operations.

This end of initial penetration marked the formal end of **Phase 1**.

**Phase 2A** Covert gathering of information on the Consortium and its relationship with other criminal organizations. These field agents proved instrumental to gathering our first solid information on the inner workings of the Consortium. We first found success when Agent Qala was recruited into the Mercenary Corps as a temporary contractor which nonetheless provided us with sufficient insight into the military capabilities and operations of the Consortium.

Agent Zarimirra was achieving similar success and finally began a formal slaving business relationship with Consortium representatives. Agent Perrenoud was also soon approached by Consortium representatives for potential offers. Through all of these infiltrators, we learned a significant amount about the inner workings of Consortium slaving and business operations.

**Phase 2B** began when this this level of penetration was reached, and to further exploit this opportunity Assets Polli'endea and Aalani were shipped into the Consortium slave operations undercover. While a significant amount of information was able to be acquired from their infiltration, the extent of the methods utilized led to the unfortunate termination of Asset Polli'endea, and Asset Aalani was only able to be recovered after suffering extensive mental and physical trauma.

Throughout this time, we were additionally and covertly locating compromised and affiliated individuals with the Consortium and extracting as much information as possible before subjecting them to mind wipes and in some cases Dimalium Conditioning. Through this, further information about the Consortium naval and military forces was acquired, as well as details on their black market and racket operations.

Intending to observe the Consortium operate in a natural environment, we selected a lesser-known senator to act as bait for the Consortium unknowingly. He was subjected to Dimalium Conditioning and underwent limited memory wipes, and was directed to make subtle criminal actions to attract attention of Consortium observers. This eventually achieved success and over the course of the operation we were able to find out an extensive amount on the clientele and services the Consortium provides.

This marked the end of **Phase 2**.

**Phase 3** consisted of several unforeseen developments and attempts of further penetration. The first attempt was a penetration of the Defiler Program, which at the time was still a large unknown in terms of recruitment and operations. The reasons for this soon became known, but ultimately resulted in the unfortunate loss of Agent Windsor.

With a significant amount of information on Consortium assets and operations catalogued, if not completely penetrated, we shifted focus of examining their relationships to other criminal organizations in the Outer Rim in more significant detail. Their feuds with the Cartels and Black Sun, as well as their bizarre partnership with Tlon Fett's Gra'tua was well-documented.

However, we made the controversial decision to activate agent Aeppli within the GenoHaradan to see if they had any substantial information on the Consortium. This paid off significantly as not only did the GenoHaradan have additional information on the Consortium, they have been actively engaged in a shadow conflict with them for years. Our asset covertly made the GenoHaradan aware of our efforts, and we were able to establish a limited contact without further risk to our asset.

In return for some information and physical assets, they were willing to provide us with enough to complete our understanding of the Consortium and with all operational objectives completed this marked the final end of the operation; the results of which have been compiled in this report.

Operation Outcome: The operation was an unquestionable SUCCESS as all our primary and secondary objectives were achieved, in addition to having a better picture of the current state of the Outer Rim as well as GenoHaradan objectives. Despite the loss of several agents and assets, we gained a significant amount of assets within the Consortium and other criminal organizations, with our other field agents recovered or maintaining their cover should we begin additional operations in the Outer Rim.

Operation Status: COMPLETE

* * *

**OVERVIEW**

I suspect that the average galactic citizen has either never heard of the Zann Consortium, or only knows the barest of details about it. It is remarkably low-key, even the people who should know about it think it's a smaller criminal organization primarily operating in the Outer Rim. They aren't included in the same breath as the Cartels, Black Sun, the Exchange, or even Tlon Fett's Gra'tua.

Yet we all know here that just because an organization is under the radar, it doesn't mean that they don't exert their influence on galactic affairs. Digging into their rivals will find that _every_ major Outer Rim criminal organization is at best _concerned_ about the Consortium, and everyone else is terrified of them. You don't hear about them because the Consortium doesn't operate that way. They work on a much higher level than you might suspect.

Before continuing further, it is important to understand how demented and amoral the Consortium is. I hesitate to ascribe a word such as 'evil' to them, but to consider their operations '_amoral_' simply does not go far enough to describe what the Consortium does on a daily basis. They make the _hutts_ look merciful by comparison, which is to say nothing of the more moderate Black Sun.

Their only 'ally' is Tlon Fett, which is more of a reflection on Fett rather than the Consortium, as the Consortium has absolutely no allies, and this goes beyond mere business conflict. The Zann Consortium has no lines they will not cross, absolutely no moral code, and no ultimate loyalty to anyone but themselves. If you can think of the worst crime one can possibly commit, the Zann Consortium has carried it out – and have likely committed far worse than that.

Prior to the commissioning of this investigation, we were largely under the impression that all parties in the Outer Rim were similar, if not the same. We know now that this is not the case. Should the Outer Rim one day need to be dealt with, the Zann Consortium should be the first eliminated.

* * *

**FOUNDATION AND HISTORY**

Pre-Operation Information: Prior to extensive in-depth investigations, we knew that the Zann Consortium was a criminal syndicate founded by Tyber Zann that primarily operated in the Outer Rim. They had a notable amount of high-end military assets, though these were often utilized for protection instead of attack.

Their primary operations focused on slaving and drug distribution, and there was a suspicion that they were attempting to influence lower-level senators and government representatives on a planetary level. There is a known feud with the Hutt Cartels and the Consortium maintains a standing bounty for _any_ dathomirian and rancor corpses, with bonuses paid if they are brought alive or they are of the Nightsisters due to a standing order from Tyber Zann which has been continued by his descendants.

The organization rose around four hundred years ago during the Galactic Civil War when it was founded by Tyber Zann with his business partner and friend Urai Fen – who notably is still alive today. They played a small role in the latter days of the conflict, and are most infamously known for their temporary hijacking of the unfinished _Eclipse_-class dreadnought and causing a rout of both Rebel Alliance and Imperial forces.

To date, a military operation of this scale and audacity by the Consortium has not been replicated.

Post-Operation Information: There has been a significant amount of information on the history of the Consortium that has been uncovered. This will be broken into sections to better organize the information recovered.

_Formation of the Zann Consortium_: It appears that Tyber Zann had always been a criminal at heart. In his early years as a teenager, he held a position within the family business which refurbished older Republic and Separatist spacecraft, but grew bored with it, and began running gambling rings on the side. He was eventually discovered, and his father sent him to the Imperial Academy as punishment.

This had the opposite intended effect, as Zann simply began taking advantage of the lax security around the station and unofficially established the Zann Consortium. Some time prior to this, he met Urai Fen and both agreed to work together. Zann managed as much of the business as he could from the Academy, while Urai worked on reinvesting the funds gathered into purchasing mercenaries, equipment, spacecraft, and other goods.

His operation grew large enough that it began attracting the attention of other crime lords and organizations in the galaxy. In particular, Jabba the Hutt, who saw the expanding Consortium as a threat to his own operations, and attempted to sabotage Zann by revealing his operations to the Empire. This was thwarted by Urai, but enough evidence remained that Zann was expelled from Imperial service – which hindered him in the short-term.

Free of the Empire, Zann continued to build the Consortium and ironically entered into a tenuous partnership with Jabba, with neither trusting the other. For close to a year, Zann worked with Jabba while receiving equipment and spacecraft in return for running smaller jobs. Zann supposedly intended to break off the relationship fairly quickly, and had been quietly developing an experimental intelligence arm of agents which we now know were the first-generation 'Defilers.'

These spies informed Zann about an artifact Jabba had purchased – which we know now was a Sith holocron, though Zann and Urai didn't learn this until much later – and intended to take it for himself. Zann and his forces impersonated the Hutt Cartels and took the artifact for themselves, though Zann was captured by Imperials who Jabba had tipped off when he realized he had been betrayed.

Zann spent a short amount of time in the Kessel Mines, though successfully predicted that Jabba would send a bounty hunter to eliminate him – an opening they had anticipated and Urai took advantage of. Together, they broke out of prison while starting a small riot that was eventually put down, though not before both were able to escape.

Free again, though with the Consortium in less than ideal shape, they established two goals – to build the Consortium into a criminal empire to eclipse the Black Sun, and to determine the use of the artifact they now had in their possession.

_Hunt for the Emperor's Vaults_: It should be made clear that Tyber Zann found the Sith artifact more of a curiosity than something extremely valuable. He knew it had the _potential_ to radically change the fortune of the Consortium, but he nonetheless was not staking everything on it. Instead, he was setting his sights for a much more practical if ambitious target – the personal vaults of the Emperor himself. At the time, he was unaware that the Emperor was a Sith – though it is unlikely it would have dissuaded him.

Using the few resources at his disposal, Zann slowly built up his criminal empire in the Outer Rim. He personally conquered a dozen Cartel planets and was able to extract a truce between the Consortium and Jabba, stating that they wouldn't interfere in the other's operations in return for the same courtesy – as well as the removal of the bounty on Zann's head.

As they continued expanding their operations, they soon found that industrial espionage was the best means of acquiring the most cutting-edge technology and proceeded to use the Defilers to infiltrate, bribe, and intimidate business and government officials within the Rebel Alliance and Empire, while using his military to retain order on his production worlds. Through this, the Consortium was able to develop a small, yet notably advanced fleet that was capable of holding their own against similarly sized Rebel and Imperial fleets.

The notable breakthrough was the absolute corruption of Mandal Hypernautics which, while it had roots in Mandalorian culture, had long since broken away from the isolated Mandalorian Union. Yet they did continue to be on the cutting-edge of spacecraft design, and soon they became the primary shipbuilders of the Consortium, and were the ones who created the infamous _Keldabe_-class and _Aggressor_-class battleships.

There was also a breakthrough in the mystery of the artifact, namely that it was based in the Force and only a Force-sensitive could likely unlock it. With few options, Urai suggested seeking out the Nightsisters and the duo planned an infiltration of Dathomir where the Empire had established a presence. They freed a significant portion of the Nightsisters, led a rebellion against the Empire, and ultimately enlisted Silri, the most powerful of the clan, into the Consortium to unlock the artifact.

The alliance between Zann, Urai, and Silri could be best described as _strained_. Both Urai and Silri were at odds, with the former making multiple threats should she pose a threat to the Consortium and Zann, though Zann himself was notably unconcerned with the possibility of betrayal.

The Consortium continued to develop and expand their operations, now even within the Inner Rim, and there were multiple encounters with Imperial forces in the meantime, with Zann engaging with – and surviving – a trap by Grand Admiral Thrawn, though in the process, he lost the artifact – something that he had anticipated.

Having acquired the location of the Emperor's Archives, where they knew they could find a way to access the Vaults themselves, they were unconcerned with the artifact as Silri had said it was merely a star map of some kind. Her reaction to the loss raised the suspicions of both men, and Zann merely commented that if she ever lied or disobeyed him again, he would work to ensure the ultimate genocide of the Nightsisters and rancors.

With that presumably settled, the trio went on a small undercover mission to Coruscant where they successfully managed to penetrate the Archives, with Silri going off on her own mission to recover the artifact despite express orders to stay put. It is unknown exactly how all of them managed to penetrate so deeply into the Archives, but the absence of the Emperor and capabilities of Urai and Silri likely account for this.

Despite running into Silri in the Archives, they first escaped together with Urai stating she would be dealt with later. However, Zann put that aside temporarily as they now knew where they could access the Vaults – which was unfortunately through the _Eclipse_. It was a 'Super Star Destroyer' the Empire was in the process of building, so they were forced to wait a short time until the second Death Star was destroyed.

Seizing the chance, Zann led the Consortium in one of the largest battles of the post-Civil War era where he arrived, briefly assisted the Rebels in fighting the Empire, then had teams of engineers and soldiers storm the vital systems of the _Eclipse_ and after some time spent bringing the superlaser it held online, turned it against the Rebels and Empire alike, including destroying the SSD _Annihilator_, an _Executor_-class star dreadnought.

When the battle was over, Zann used the _Eclipse_ to access the Vaults of the Emperor and siphoned close to fourteen trillion credits – as well as marking down locations where priceless artifacts and objects were stashed – before Imperial authorities cut his access, but by then, it was far too late. Tyber Zann was now among the wealthiest individuals in the galaxy, and he had no plans of stopping.

_The Betrayal of Silri_: While Zann and Urai were busy with making major decisions about the future of the Consortium, Silri was planning to capitalize on the knowledge she had gained from the holocron which she had neglected to tell Zann, and made a covert mission to a remote world which housed a vault with soldiers from the Sith Empire of Revan and Malak frozen in carbonite.

As we know now, the only reason that Urai didn't execute her immediately after she defied Zann's orders, or after the Vaults had been accessed, was because Zann wanted to see where she would lead them, since he knew she would not tell him what she had actually learned. He quietly placed trackers on the artifact, her ship, and Silri herself.

So, when Silri found an army of Sith soldiers that she inevitably planned to use against Zann, her revelry was cut short by the sound of Zann clapping as he was flanked by Urai and an army of Defilers. Zann had also placed everyone well within the radius of ysalamir cages he brought along – a tool he had invested in quite heavily, especially after the death of the Emperor.

In a rage, Silri attacked and was defeated by Urai after a prolonged battle – with Zann watching with amusement. However, Zann forbade Urai from killing her quite yet and simply moved her close to an ysalamir to ensure she wouldn't be able to use the Force. Zann at first didn't know what to do with the frozen Sith army, as he certainly didn't trust the Sith, nor did he think any soldiers extracted would be reliable.

It is ultimately unknown what Zann did with the frozen Sith army. To date, they have not been spotted in the galaxy at large, and we suspect that they are within the Consortium Vaults today, they were disposed of, or they were sold to other parties. Most evidence suggests they are still in storage, as Zann would likely consider them too risky to sell, and also not want to get rid of a potential resource. This remains a mystery.

However, the punishment for Silri was long and painful, as Zann lived up to his word and returned to Dathomir with his army and murdered her entire clan in front of her, as well as several other nearby ones before feeding her to a starving rancor. Ever since her betrayal, while the Consortium has never invaded Dathomir again, they have standing bounties for the corpses of dathomirians, and pay extra for those alive or Nightsisters – either dead or alive. Bounties are also payed to rancor hunters as well, and the Consortium is responsible for the extinction of Dathomirian and Felucian Rancors which have happened in the past half century.

_The Yuuzhan Vong War_: In the aftermath that followed, the Consortium was content to sit and observe the fall of the Imperial Remnant and rise of the New Republic, with a significant amount of effort being focused on the corruption of the Senate to serve Zann's interests. The operation itself was more of Zann experimenting with how easily this could be done and what benefits it would give him.

Ironically, the criminal aspects of the Consortium were lessened as Zann – not wanting to squander his fortune – became a heavy investor of dozens of companies, started his own, and transitioned the Consortium into a technically 'cleaner' model where there were barriers of plausible deniability between the Consortium and the less savory elements.

During this period, he also married – ironically – a former Vigo of the Black Sun who had defected to the Consortium several years back. She took a greater role in the Consortium after that point, and gave birth to two sons. While his children were still growing up, the yuuzhan vong invaded and this event proved to be among the most destructive to the Consortium.

The transition to integrating the Consortium so heavily with major businesses across the galaxy meant that as they were hurt, so was the Consortium. The lessened criminal elements made additional streams of revenue tighter, and while it didn't irreversibly cripple the Consortium, it heavily hurt them financially to the point where nearly four trillion credits were irreversibly lost.

It should be noted that the Consortium did participate against the vong, though this was certainly done out of a purely pragmatic need, as the vong weren't exactly as vulnerable to crime and corruption as the New Republic or Empire. A few decades after the vong, Tyber Zann died peacefully and comfortably – quite pleased with all he had accomplished.

And while Urai Fen was still alive, the question of if the Zann Consortium could survive without Tyber Zann was about to be answered.

_Decline of the Consortium_: Unfortunately, very few of Zann's descendants have been as shrewd, ruthless, or intelligent as he was, and despite guidance from Urai and several of the older Consortium members, had a tendency to do their own thing. The Consortium was in a good place at the time of his death, and this gave many of his children a sense of entitlement and insulation from mistakes.

The Consortium found itself outmaneuvered, exploited, defeated, and on the decline within a century, and the quality of those who were part of the Consortium was rapidly diminishing as it transitioned to something no better organized than a hutt racket, and their reputation was slowly forgotten and they began to be treated as something of a joke by the other criminal syndicates, though if you had asked, Tyber Zann was still considered one of the greatest crime lords in the galaxy.

Urai Fen during this time was torn between respecting that a Zann should always lead the Consortium, and being furious that Tyber's legacy was being destroyed by his ignorant, greedy, and foolish children. When they had originally stolen the money from the vaults, they had split it with Tyber taking half, and Urai taking the other. Unbeknownst to the vast majority – including Urai himself – this appeared to be Zann's contingency in the event of this situation, as Urai still retained his own wealth and could rebuild the Consortium if he so chose.

We don't know if Urai reached this conclusion himself or acted regardless of how Zann would have wanted it, but nearly two hundred years after the death of Tyber Zann, Urai dispatched Torian Zann, his wife, and the entire leadership of the Consortium and took direct command, while sparing Torian's single daughter, and raising her as his own.

_Urai Fen Assumes Command_: Prior to assuming control of the Consortium, Urai had been planning a means by which the Consortium could be revived. Using parts of his wealth, he prepared to act more openly when he assumed command. Most of the Consortium who were in officer or administrative positions welcomed the change in leadership, and found themselves promoted by Urai as they began the process of rebuilding – again.

Under Urai, the Consortium was less focused on the manipulative aspects of crime that Tyber had been exceptional at, but more on the physical strength of the Consortium and carving out territory in the Outer Rim. While they were often thought of as little better than thugs during this time, under Urai, they had stopped their downward spiral and were beginning to be noticed again – at least in the criminal world.

Urai himself had admitted that he is ultimately a poor manager, one reason he was hesitant to assume command of the Consortium – and only has a mind for more straightforward and linear operations. He is not an economist, motivating speaker, nor had a mind for manipulation. He understands the concepts, but not necessarily the best implementation.

It is perhaps in an attempt to mitigate this that he began investing in a high number of specialized and experimental projects across the galaxy, even as the Consortium began to stabilize. Not all of these investments were wise or beneficial, but a few – such as the investment in kaminoan cloning technology and hiring several dozen of the best geneticists and AI engineers proved to be vital for the Consortium to be turned into what it was today.

Urai was in command of the Consortium for just over a full century, not willing to relinquish the organization to a Zann until it was stable and he had enough personal credits to act as a contingency should this situation happen again. And he instituted a new requirement should he relinquish command – if they did not have his approval, they would not take command of the Consortium.

The first one who Urai willingly stepped aside for was Talia Zann, who is the one largely responsible for the Consortium as it exists today.

_Reconfiguration of the Consortium_: One might wonder what it is like to grow up in a criminal organization. One thing which appears to be a theme is that there was little connection between the parents and children, as Urai tended to take a heavy role in the development of Zann children after he took command. While he appears to have become more lenient due to Talia, the woman in question was involved in the inner workings of the Consortium from a very young age.

With the blessing and encouragement of Urai, when she reached her late teens, she assumed an undercover identity and acquired academic degrees in political science, criminology, and economics while spending a decade with Coruscant law enforcement. This up-close exposure to the most powerful planet in the galaxy presumably shaped how she planned to utilize the stable, if stagnant, Consortium.

She eventually returned to Urai with a plan. She had been rather fascinated with Tyber and what he had been able to accomplish, and wanted to both return the Consortium to their criminal roots and ensure that they offered something that no one else could provide. Her one criticism of Tyber Zann was that he never distinguished himself from any other crime lord except in size.

The Consortium, in her opinion, had been settling for 'efficiency' and 'stability' over exceptionalism. At their height, they had been competent, but what they did could be interchanged with the Black Sun, Hutt Cartels, or Exchange. They were not special in what they did, and Talia meant to change this.

She and Urai spent five years developing a century-long plan for the Zann Consortium that intended to revolutionize the criminal underworld and firmly establish the Consortium at the absolute top of the pack. It required time, patience, and investments that would not pay off until entire decades later. It was embracing the philosophy of quality over quantity, and the pursuit of each opportunity by any means necessary.

In short, either find something no one has and provide it, or find something already provided and do it better. Simple supply and demand, although you would be surprised just how lazy criminal organizations are. At a certain point, they become a business all to themselves, and part of that business is trying to save as much money for themselves.

The first years into this plan were extremely quiet, as the Consortium was primarily acquiring infrastructure, personnel, and connections before making major moves. The investments into cloning saved significant time, as that was to be a cornerstone of the new Consortium, and due to this, the Consortium was able to begin the design and production of Generation-III Defilers and begin using them in operations two decades later.

Part of the plan involved the creation of an entirely new criminal class, with Talia and Urai carrying this out from the ground up by forming partnerships with minor senators, their associates, business partners, up-and-coming bounty hunters, slavers, and more. The independents who had yet to choose a side. The Consortium carefully invested in making these individuals wealthy and renowned in their particular circles, which, in turn, opened doors the Consortium could now reach into for a degree.

Soon there was talk of the Zann Consortium in very few, but very highly-placed social and criminal circles. There were questions about what they did or could provide. After letting the talk develop for some time, the Consortium formally sent invitations to certain individuals, inviting them to a highly exclusive event, which anyone who received it knew was a high-end black market that the Consortium had established.

Held in one of the suites of the 500 Republica, it was a resounding success for the Zann Consortium as it served as a hub for the wealthy of the galaxy to purchase cutting-edge experimental and illegal equipment, designs, weapons, and schematics. Talia and Urai were in attendance, making sure to socialize with the crowd, and making themselves known to some of the criminal elite of the galaxy for the first time.

This was one of many such events the Consortium managed, and this practice still continues today. _Exclusivity_ and _quality_ became associated with the Consortium, no matter the content itself. A black market may be relatively tame. Much less so when the events revolve around slaves, gladiator matches, and biotech.

The Consortium was not quite known on the streets of the underworlds as it had once been, but that was intended. It was known by those that mattered.

_The Kamino Uprising and Beyond_: Both Talia and Urai knew that a kaminoan rebellion was coming, and curiously invested very heavily in pre-Uprising kaminoan technology for reasons that will become very apparent later, as well as luring several kaminoan cloning experts to the Consortium. To this day, the Consortium serves as a haven for any kaminoan still alive.

They did not expect the kaminoans to win, yet did expect the galaxy to become a warzone during that period and prepared accordingly. They made sure that their wealthy clients were taken care of and provided whatever they paid for while also taking advantage of the war to hook entire planets on their drugs, funded slavers exorbitant amounts to operate near warzones, and even provided entertainment such as pitting captured Jedi and kaminoan clone soldiers against each other – all of this _during_ the Uprising.

Shortly after the conflict Talia – now fairly old for a human – contracted a rare type of brain cancer which currently has no cure, though how it was actually developed is unknown. Given that there is no previous familial history of it, it's possible it was contracted through dangerous materials she might have handled.

Regardless of the circumstances, she made the voluntary decision to freeze herself in carbonite as a cure is attempted to be developed. Her children, Tyrell and Tora Zann have assumed joint command of the Consortium in the meantime with Urai's approval, and they have thus far continued to follow the plan their mother developed.

* * *

**PHILOSOPHY AND MINDSET**

Customer service.

I suspect that is not the first thing that comes to your mind when you picture a criminal organization, but the Consortium is no ordinary criminal organization. They are in the business of what can best be described as 'luxury' crime, where their primary clientele are not the poor, desperate, addicted, or stupid, but the elite and well-connected.

This is not to say that the Consortium does not exploit the non-wealthy – as their drug and slaving operations prove without a doubt – but that their operations as it relates to the less fortunate are more of a side business – and even then, they are exceptional at keeping a client base, as well as sabotaging their competition.

There is a certain niche that each criminal organization provides the galaxy. The hutts are your cheap and dirty option. Crime is just something that clings to them, and expecting high-quality outside of a few exceptions is more trouble than it is worth, but if you want cheap work or labor, the hutts are who you go to first.

If you want to be a criminal – but don't exactly want to _be_ a criminal – and make some money on the side, the Black Sun is your best choice as they have divested to the point that they are a legitimate security firm in the Outer Rim and their crimes have moved from drug and weapon smuggling to white-collar financial crime and fraud. Not much better, but they are as moderate as you can be for a criminal organization, and appeal to opportunists with money and a twisted moral code, especially since they have all but stopped their slave trade a few decades back.

The Exchange is your typical mixture of hired muscle and slavers. Brutish and destructive, but effective if you know what you're getting into. Cheap and easy to be hired by, if for very dangerous work. There is a reason they are often used as security in the Outer Rim, and your hint is not because of their manners or good looks, but because they're cheap and easy.

Now what kind of criminal is missing here?

The one with _standards_. The one who isn't going to be satisfied with glitterstim of seventy percent purity, who won't tolerate simple and stupid thugs to hire, who will turn down buying slaves because none of them appeal to their particular tastes. The ones who don't want to carry out deals in back alleyways and shadowy cantinas. The ones who have wealth and are willing to spend it if their desires are catered to.

The high society criminal is who the Consortium caters to. The especially depraved individual who has high standards, is classy and cultured, and who sees absolutely nothing wrong with their criminal actions, yet will shun the lesser criminals for their brutish, unsubtle, and emotional efforts and crimes.

These types of people are above such concerns, anyway. Crime is not just an experience for them, but a lifestyle choice they can afford. Now, these kinds of criminals number only in the thousands, but in the scope of the galaxy, that is more than enough for the Consortium to run a ludicrously wealthy business.

I will give a couple examples to illustrate this, and there will be more throughout the document.

Let us consider for a moment the thousands of illegal gladiator matches that take place across the galaxy, but particularly in the Outer Rim. The blood sport is of interest for many, but it is to this kind of criminal – boring. Half-dead slaves fighting each other or whatever pitiful wildlife is brought in. Amusing to the petty criminals, perhaps, but it is of no interest to those of means.

But then this person hears of an event. One-time only, a recreation of the Battle of Felucia, such an obscure event they may need to look it up to see that it was one of the major battles of the Clone Wars four centuries ago, a slaughter on both sides as they had to contend with wildlife. This is intriguing enough for this person to inquire further, and they learn that not only will a recreation take place, but it will be _authentic_. With clones and battle droids from that era, untouched, as well as wildlife.

This criminal knows instinctively that this is an unmissable event, and while the buy-in is expensive, consider that the benefits include lodging, exquisite food and drink compatible for all species, even an escort you can specify ahead of time should they so desire. Is the location too far away? No problem! As transportation is provided free of charge, should it be requested.

And do not forget that the event itself will be filled with colleagues and peers, and there would be plenty of time to conduct private business and forge connections should one so desire. What can be done is completely up to the individual, but there should be no mistake that this promises to be an experience unlike any other.

As ironic as it sounds, with the Consortium, you really do get what you pay for. They've developed a clientele that no other criminal organization has or can acquire now, because at this point, no one wants to put up the money to peel away their clients. Especially since these types of criminals are _notoriously picky_. The Consortium is the only organization that actively caters to these preferences, while everyone else just finds it easier to appeal to the masses.

And even then, the Consortium is encroaching on that as well, particularly in the drug trade. Hutt drugs in particular are highly impure and toxic, but are also widespread and addictive. The solution the Consortium has is to pour money into producing near-pure equivalents of the same drug, specially engineered to ensure that _only_ that drug will satisfy their addiction.

So regular spice won't cut it anymore. They will need to find the Consortium-backed dealer who will be more than happy to sell as much as he wants – for the appropriate price, of course. It is interesting to note that the Consortium actively _loses_ money with the drug trade, but the tradeoff is that they are simultaneously hurting their competition, and they additionally make money through selling in bulk to sanctioned dealers.

I believe this should be a sufficient overview of what the Consortium approach to crime is. We will continue down this hole in more detail in a short while.

* * *

**LOCATIONS AND BASES OF NOTE**

Overview: There are a few bases of operation which are worth pointing out, although the Consortium largely prefers to maintain space stations and uninhabited moons as their primary production points, and also operate in a decentralized environment with safe houses, event locations, and more on a significant number of planets in the Alliance. It is very difficult to pin down 'Consortium Space' since they don't operate on a per-planet scale of influence. Nonetheless, there are some locations of note.

Saleucami: If there is a 'primary' base of operations for the Zann Consortium, it would be on Saleucami, and it is, in fact, one of the planets the Consortium has been able to control since the early days of the organization. It is an extremely arid planet, with the few spots of vegetation long since gone due to the heavy industrialization the Consortium has put the planet through.

It houses the primary shipyards of Mandal Hypernautics who produce the fleet for the Consortium, and on the ground, it is home to kilometers worth of droid factories and production plants. It is quite possibly the most valuable world the Consortium controls, and the Consortium is well aware of this fact.

_Security Level_: Extremely high, and this is putting it very mildly. The entire War Fleet is here when not on operations, as well as standard Protection Fleet deployments. There are ion and hypervelocity cannons scattered throughout the planet, and the shipyards are similarly protected with a Class-V defense station. Nothing short of a dedicated war fleet will be able to get past it, and on the ground, you will be facing armies of droidekas, Canderous-class assault tanks, as well as constant Defiler sabotage and harassment.

Spaarti: As far as we are aware, this is not the original name of the moon, although it is what the Consortium refers to it as. It also does not have any relation to the Spaarti cloners, although considering what the planet is used for, it's extremely likely that the Consortium uses Spaarti equipment in some of their cloning operations.

If it isn't apparent, Spaarti is primary location of all cloning, genetic editing, and other biometric procedures and experiments. Clones for all purposes are grown here, and there are hundreds of thousands of clones grown at a time. When you understand how the Consortium operates, this is not as extreme as it sounds, but is still a significant amount.

This is also where the Defiler Program is managed, and all Defiler research, training, and engineering is conducted on this moon. Unfortunately, we don't know _where_ Spaarti is located, although there is absolutely zero question that it actually exists.

_Security Level_: Almost certainly extensive. If nothing else, the headquarters for the Defilers will ensure that whoever attempts to attack it will pay dearly for the privilege. It is also likely that the Consortium has a clone army of some kind hidden within, or additional unknown defenses. However, the greatest defense is the fact that only a few seem to actually know where it is.

Hypori: Another desert planet the Consortium has maintained control over, Hypori is where the majority of drug production and research takes place. The planet is also responsible for producing the many weapons, armor, and equipment utilized by Consortium forces, and is a similarly critical world for anyone wanting to cripple the organization. There is little worth noting about it outside of this.

_Security Level_: While not as well-protected as Saleucami, Hypori is nonetheless going to be costly to any enemy fleet that attempts to assault it, as it maintains a Protection Fleet and several dozen garrisons on the ground, in addition to a Class-V Consortium station and a strong Defiler presence.

'Slavery Station': While this is unlikely to be the actual designation of the station, it has nonetheless had the moniker attributed to it by Consortium personnel as well as clientele. At the moment, we are unsure if Slavery Station is just a marketplace, or a location where slaves are grown and groomed as well. The only evidence we have suggests that it is a marketplace.

It's been mentioned that the Consortium goes to considerable measures to treat their clients well and in the slave trade it is no exception. It disgusts me to have to use words such as this, but the closest comparison is a zoo with a guided tour. From what we know, the inhabitants of the station can be changed and configured depending on who is arriving and what they are interested in.

Clients coming to buy slaves for labor will be led through a tour that is divided by species, showing wookiees, trandoshans, gamorreans, weequay, humans, and other species that are preferred for manual labor. As they are led through, the slaves will be doing some kind of example illustrating their strength, durability, and so on. Clients are fully allowed to interact with the slaves or put them through tests to ensure that they could perform satisfactorily.

Change the focus from 'labor' to 'sex,' 'combat,' 'engineering,' 'cooking,' and any other subcategory you can think of and this will still apply. More details should be saved for the section discussing Consortium slaving operations, but when people buy slaves from the Consortium, this is the place they come to.

_Security Level_: No one knows where this station is, as all clients are taken to the station on a Consortium-controlled spacecraft, as well as scanned and searched before boarding. Weapons are allowed, but obviously can't be used against other clients or Consortium soldiers, as the Defilers and Yellow Jackets have no issue executing anyone even _thinking_ of trying to pull something. It is also possible this station moves as well, but we have no way of confirming that for certain, and it is also likely that each route is randomized, as the number of hyperspace jumps vary for each trip.

The _Defiler_: The Gen-IV _Keldabe_-class battleship and flagship of Tyrell Zann himself is one of the most dangerous ships of the Consortium fleet. Outfitted with mass drivers, turbolasers, and cutting-edge shield-leeching technology that has continued to be refined, it is more than a match for even a Star Destroyer. It also seems to serve as a mobile base of operations, and travels with a personal fleet to address the shortcomings of the ship itself, even if it does hold a fighter complement.

An interesting thing to note is that it is unknown what the origin of the name for the battleship is. While the obvious answer is that the Defiler is one of the most well-known units in the Consortium, it is not out of the question he named it to recognize his own personal Defiler, Samantha.

_Security Level_: As mentioned, it has a small escort fleet that travels wherever the _Defiler_ goes, and most of the time, it stays with the War Fleet anyway, so it is unlikely you would be able to surprise him. In the event it was boarded, I suspect that the ship would be crawling with droidekas, Defilers, Yellow Jackets, and possibly seeded with ysalamiri. We don't know, and didn't get a chance to find out.

The _Merciless_: Adopting the name of the original capital ship of Tyber Zann, the modern incarnation of the _Merciless_ is a Gen-IV _Aggressor_-class warship, and one of the few models which still exists in the galaxy. It was dubbed a capital ship killer back when it was developed, and the designation still stands today, offset by the extraordinary cost of actually producing one of these things.

The _Merciless_ is commanded by Tora Zann, and she's fairly conservative with it, not daring to leave the War Fleet due to the inherent weaknesses of the _Aggressor_-class, which is really only good for one thing – destroying capital ships. It is nonetheless a symbol of power, and one Tora seems to enjoy referencing,

_Security Level_: Since it has so far never left the War Fleet, infiltration is extremely unlikely and has about as good a chance of success as trying to take out the _Defiler_. And unlike Tyrell, Tora has yet to take the _Merciless_ anywhere else without the War Fleet at her back. The good news is that in the event of a boarding situation, there are likely to be few defenses since so much space is taken up by the two main weapons.


	2. Zann Consortium - Structure

**SotP Addenda - Galactic Underworld, Beneath the Façade**

* * *

**STRUCTURE : OVERVIEW**

The Consortium is a highly complex organization with multiple divisions and military branches. Each section will focus on a specific aspect of the Consortium and explain it in as much detail as necessary. Some sections are more detailed than others, either due to subject matter, current information level, or extrapolation.

All the sections can be placed into the following categories (please note this is not the order they are detailed in):

**Military**:

\- Consortium Ground Forces

\- Consortium Naval Forces

**Administration**:

\- Client Management and Acquisition

\- The Golden Board

\- The Defilers (while capable of military actions, they have a much larger administrative role)

**Services**:

\- The Consortium Rackets

\- Black Market Management

\- Drug Development Control

\- Slaving Operation Control

* * *

**STRUCTURE : GROUND MILITARY FORCES**

The Grenadier Corps: The lowest soldiers in the Consortium, the Grenadiers could technically be described as an explosives team specializing in bomb defusing, mine planting, and general sabotage. In practice, this amounts to a slave army which is considered completely disposable by the Consortium. The individuals who attempt to scam, run, or otherwise defraud the Consortium out of money are hauled away, have a control chip inserted in their brains, and are transferred to the Grenadiers where they will work for the rest of their likely short lives.

This is not necessarily to say that the Consortium invests _nothing_ into the Grenadiers, but considering that they die so often, they've learned not to invest significant resources into them. They are responsible for navigating minefields, attempting to defuse bombs (they are given some basic training on how to accomplish this), setting traps for enemy forces, acting as bait, having to work in hazardous conditions, as well as being the first to deploy in major conflicts.

Grenadiers do not live long, with the average lifespan being three months after first deploying (excluding training), although the Consortium only requires six months of 'service' before their debt is paid off. The number of individuals who can claim this are in the low thousands, so dangerous is the work. Rumors surrounding the work range from horrifically dangerous to almost ludicrously wasteful, such as one that claims the Consortium sends Grenadiers into toxic planets to work as a source of disposable and insufficiently protected labor instead of utilizing proper protection or droids - odd considering how practical the Consortium normally is.

Grenadiers are not involved whatsoever in high-profile operations within the Consortium, as it rather contrasts with the elite and clean image they project to their clientele.

The Mercenary Corps: The Consortium, to the surprise of quite a few, actually does not have an extremely large standing army that answers _solely_ to the Consortium. The majority of their manpower comes from the contracting of mercenaries who they develop working relationships with. Joining the Mercenary Corps, however, is invitation-only, and the Consortium has standards each mercenary group must meet before they are even considered.

A clear track record of success is one, professionalism and reliability is another, and a lack of major clients is a third. The Consortium has positioned itself to be _the_ place for up-and-coming merc groups to make a name for themselves. However, when they are part of the Mercenary Corps, they can _only_ perform work for the Consortium, even if they can recruit. Contracts are done on a one-year basis without exception, with only the Consortium being able to terminate without repercussion.

While contracted by the Consortium, the mercenary groups are treated very well and outfitted with essentially whatever they want, within reason, of course. The Consortium expects them to perform well if they are required, and being cheap is not something they do. This has made them especially appealing to struggling mercenary groups, although in return for this, they have to perform whatever the Consortium wants without question.

This is not difficult in some cases, as sometimes they'll just be assigned to guard duty or as garrisons on one of the fleets, but sometimes they'll be called in to assist in slaving operations, perform hits on civilians at the behest of one of the Consortium's clients, or witness or participate in other unsavory aspects of the Consortium. While the high pay and free outfitting is enough to keep most mercenary groups quiet, some have refused orders and have subsequently been pressed into the Grenadier Corps.

Word has subsequently spread, and the more principled merc groups steer well away from the Consortium.

The Yellow Vests: This is the first 'true' infantry division of the Consortium, and more exclusive than would be expected from this division. Most are drawn from Mercenary Corps, particularly those who have worked with the Consortium for multiple years and are determined to be 'trustworthy.' It is considered a significant promotion, and the Yellow Vests have a lot of perks associated with the position, such as higher pay, access to off-duty 'events' the Consortium hosts, and the privilege of being able to choose a high-quality slave should they desire.

Their name comes from their yellow armor, which, if the rumors were to be believed, was something Tyber Zann assigned his more elite soldiers so he'd know that they weren't the disposable ones. They have since evolved from 'slightly more competent soldiers' into a well-trained and disciplined fighting force.

They are used for protecting critical Consortium assets and locations, and serve as guards for Consortium events and guests. If a Defiler ever needs military support, it will almost always be the Yellow Vests who are sent to assist. Traditionally, they are also equipped with rare (and illegal) disruptor weapons which while they are useless against shields, are devastating against armored or unarmored opponents. They also carry thermal detonators and mass driver rifles if shields will be used against them.

Intentionally or not by Tyber Zann, the distinct color of the Yellow Vests makes them extremely easy to pick out in a crowd or firefight, and as they are considered figures of authority within the Consortium, guests and the Mercenary Corps know to go to them if there is trouble or they have questions. Unless the question or concern is particularly inane, the Yellow Vests will assist as much as they can.

An interesting note is that _none_ of the Yellow Vests undergo any sort of conditioning or means of 'insurance.' It appears to be assumed that if you've reached this rank, you aren't going to leave it. A risk, but there are far more benefits associated with simply staying loyal than defecting, so it should perhaps not be a surprise that we never heard any stories of Yellow Vest defections.

Or the Defilers simply covered them up.

The Droid Works: The Consortium has been using droids since they took control of Hypori back in the Galactic Civil War, and have utilized them to great effect. They have largely eschewed cheap and disposable droids, and instead focused their resources to more complex, if expensive, units.

The first is the Droideka Mark IV, which retains the same mobility advantages (and disadvantages) as the original model, but has had the chassis, shield generator, and weapons heavily upgraded. The Mk. IV in particular features a modular weapons system where the droidekas can be equipped with rocket, laser, and mass driver weapons as opposed to just lasers.

There is also the IG-8000 War Droid which was based off of the old droid bounty hunter IG-88 who worked with the Consortium for a brief time. This assassin droid was designed primarily as an anti-organic weapon capable of dispensing poison gas, radioactive contamination, and carbonite or other substances that organic soldiers would need additional equipment to handle. It is bulkier than the original IG assassin model, and widely considered extremely dangerous, even if rather rare.

The final droid of note is technically more of a mobile automated platform, which was stolen from Rebel Alliance designs, who had themselves stolen it from the Empire. Regardless, the Consortium continues to use the Mobile Defense Unit (MDU) for establishing forward positions as it can be configured to serve as a platform for turrets, ysalamir cages, sensors, and more, provided that there is sufficient time to establish it. These are the only units the Consortium sells regularly.

The Canderous Division: This is a fairly small division as the need for armored vehicles is often limited due to the work the Consortium performs, but for vital planets they are kept in reserve. The name used to only refer to the Canderous-class assault tank, but has since been adopted to the rest of the division.

There is, of course the assault tank still in use, a krill-shaped hovercraft that has since been updated to produce a weak shield. The primary weapons are still twin mass drivers mounted on a swivel cannon that can aim in any direction. It is among the most versatile of the Canderous Division, and employed for precision operations.

The Pulsar Tank was developed to be a singular anti-vehicle weapon, and that is still what it does today. Utilizing treads and not hovertech, it does have mobility disadvantages and the only weapon it has is the massive plasma cannon that can damage or destroy most vehicles in one hit. The chassis has been improved, but the reactor for the vehicle is still highly unstable and more than one Pulsar has been known to inexplicably explode for no apparent reason. Which is more confusing since the Consortium had supposedly removed the 'self-destruct' button many iterations ago.

The primary artillery unit the Consortium uses is the Missile Attack Launcher (MAL) which is another hovercraft, and highly mobile. Much like the improvements to the droidekas, the MAL has been adapted to be modular and be able to fire a wide variety of missiles from standard, to inferno, to carbonite. They are normally utilized for taking out heavily fortified enemy positions, and are rarely deployed due to their limited numbers as the Consortium is reportedly wary of other criminal organizations acquiring and reverse-engineering the designs.

The final and most common vehicle is the F9-TZ Mark II Transport, which is primarily how ground forces are moved from location to location. What separates this troop transport – aside from the fact that it is enclosed and well-protected – is the fact that it has a cloaking device which allows it to approach with limited amounts of noise due to it also relying on hovertech, and subsequently allows for a far wider range of approaches than simply being restricted to land. Its only drawback is the more limited capacity, but due to the vast numbers the Consortium employs, it is unlikely this is a major issue. And unlike the first iteration, this one also has weapons systems.

* * *

**STRUCTURE : NAVAL FORCES**

The Consortium is not considered a major naval power, even in the Outer Rim, even though the fleets they possess are among the most advanced. This is exclusively due to their limited size and how long it takes to produce their most dangerous units. It should be noted that a fleet is largely not required for major Consortium operations to take place, which is the best explanation for the limited fleet size – if it were deemed important, there would be a significantly larger investment than what currently exists.

The Consortium Navy is divided into three fleets, each with a different focus.

The Pirate Fleet: This is both the largest and weakest fleet within the Consortium Navy. As the name implies, the Pirate Fleet is primarily used for piracy and low-risk operations where resistance is not significant or expected. Attempting to pin down exactly what kind of ships comprise the fleet is more difficult than you would think, because this is essentially the Mercenary Corps of the Navy, with many of the merc groups maintaining ground and space units.

The ships utilized range from models hundreds of years out-of-date, to cutting-edge designs. It all depends on what the mercenaries choose. In any case, the Consortium works to ensure that the Pirate Fleet is in the best shape possible, in return for the mercenaries providing a source of contextually cheap manpower without risking their more important assets.

The Pirate Fleet is dangerous for cheap and ill-trained militaries like the ones the hutts maintain, but they tend to collapse fairly quickly if faced with appropriate defenses and a competent defense. The Pirate Fleet is composed of mostly fighters, bombers, and at most some light-frigates. Investing in anti-fighter defenses is your best course, and the Black Sun in particular has been overwhelmingly successful in preventing runs by the Pirate Fleet on their territory, though conversely, has led to the Pirate Fleet improving their own tactics and making them more conservative when considering targets.

The Protection Fleet: This is the first fleet that contains proper Consortium units, and the sole purpose of the fleet is to protect and defend Consortium assets. Considering that the number of planets and locations the Consortium controls are few and far between, this means that almost every single major Consortium-controlled location _will_ require nothing less than a full fleet to reliably deal with.

The Consortium is able to maintain an absurdly high quality of their fleet due to their small size, and have dedicated teams of engineers and designers to continually improve on their current designs which they go to great lengths to ensure are _not_ spread across the galaxy. The Consortium protects their assets, and if anyone dares to claim they have schematics of Consortium spacecraft, they will likely be dead within the week, in addition to anyone else they may have told.

I suspect this would become infeasible if the Consortium were to engage in a proper war with the Alliance, Empire, or even the Mandalorians or Ascendency, but for now, no one is able to acquire the schematics or reverse-engineer Consortium spacecraft. Supposedly, only a few people in the Consortium have access to them, and the Consortium does their best to dispose of critical components of destroyed spacecraft.

As for what the fleet contains, this section will focus on what is exclusive to the Protection Fleet as specific ships will be elaborated on within the War Fleet, so it should be assumed that anything that is in the War Fleet should be expected in the Protection Fleet, especially in regard to the number of battleships employed.

The most important assets are the Class-V Consortium stations, of which there are at least one to two at every major Consortium location requiring protection. These stations are equipped with enough firepower to fight off a small fleet on their own, and more curiously, the majority of these stations are automated and only have a small maintenance crew, leaving more room for the garrison which is much larger than other comparable space stations.

They are also notably the only fleet to employ the Interceptor X frigate, which is a slow missile craft that has a high damage potential, which is offset by the slow and easily avoidable nature of the spacecraft. This does not make them ideal for the Pirate or War Fleets who do not typically engage in prolonged battles, but for defending places of interest? They are excellent, and the Consortium employs them liberally throughout the Protection Fleet.

The War Fleet: In the rare times the Consortium wishes to make a statement or engage in a critical battle, they will call upon the small, yet exceptionally dangerous War Fleet. Composed of the best assortment of Consortium ships, it is easily among the most powerful fleets in the Outer Rim and would be able to hold their own against Alliance or Imperial fleets.

There are relatively few units, but each one has undergone extensive iteration, testing, and refinement over literal centuries. The primary fighters utilized are the StarViper M-6, an aurek-shaped fighter that is deceptively small, which is due to design improvements. In contrast to the original iteration, all StarVipers are automated drone swarms outfitted with light laser weapons. Their most dangerous tool is their liberal usage of buzz droids and as such, are surprisingly effective against even larger ships. The Skipray Blastboat M-3 is also utilized, and its greatest improvement has been in maneuverability without sacrificing damage output.

They only have one corvette they still utilize, and the constant refinements to the _Crusader_-class corvette justify this. Acting as an anti-missile, fighter, bomber spacecraft, the _Crusader_ is rather versatile, employing point-defense lasers that are powerful enough to pick off missiles, and now are capable of shredding enemy fighters and bombers that get too close. The most significant change to the _Crusader_ is that there are an equal number of point-defense lasers and standard laser cannons, with the _Crusader_ being able to switch between them at will. This is an exclusive choice, however, as the ship simply does not have enough power to maintain both at the size it currently is.

The main frigate the War Fleet employs is the _Vengeance-V_, which has been greatly improved upon since its acquisition by Tyber Zann. This iteration of the _Vengeance_-class frigate supports shielding, thicker armor, and a longer cloaking system that made it so dangerous beforehand, though the shielding cannot be active while the cloaking is utilized. It retains the exclusive mass driver weapons, making it extremely dangerous to shielded spacecraft, and it's employed in surprise flanking attacks after their cloaking is used to move them into position. There are supposedly fewer than fifty of these in existence, but this was not verifiable.

The final two battleships are notable due to their capabilities and rarity. The first is the _Aggressor_-class destroyer, which was a prototype design stolon by Tyber Zann from the Empire. It was initially proposed as a 'high-risk, high-reward' type battleship by Imperial designers, but there were too many vulnerabilities and weaknesses to justify the expense, so it was never developed further. Zann took the designs anyway, refined them with Mandal Hypernautics, and turned them into capital ship-killers.

Their primary weapons are two massive cannons, one that fires an ion pulse powerful enough to strip the shields off of almost any spacecraft, and a plasma cannon of equal size and destructive potential. In theory, this could take out a capital ship in one hit, should the aim be true. But while the destructive potential of the _Aggressor_ cannot be understated, there are a significant amount of weaknesses that the Consortium has had trouble correcting. The ship is slow, poorly defended (due to how much power the main guns take up), delicate, and poorly shielded. It also doesn't help that if the _Aggressor_ _misses_, it won't get another shot for at least fifteen minutes. In short, these ships are near-worthless without a supporting fleet, and heavily vulnerable to bombers and smaller spacecraft. It is likely for this reason that the Consortium only has six of these in existence (not including the _Merciless_), and seem unwilling to develop more.

Their more versatile battleship is the _Keldabe_-class, which functions far more reliably as a capital ship, equipped with a significant amount of laser and mass driver weapons, heavy plating and shielding, and the latest iterations have small complements of StarVipers and Skiprays to mitigate their shortcomings against smaller spacecraft. There are also a small number of point-defense lasers from the _Crusader_ integrated into the battleship that is capable of being maintained throughout a battle.

One of the most unique capabilities of the _Keldabe_ is the shield-leeching technology that was first developed during the Galactic Civil War, and has been extensively refined since then. Improvements have led to the shield leeching being longer, stronger, and able to now steal from multiple nearby spacecraft since it leeches from all spacecraft in a set radius around the ship, as opposed to the previously directed and inefficient leeching beam. This comes with some downsides, namely that it does not discriminate, and can strip shields from allied spacecraft, it requires the _Keldabe_ to be in the frontlines, and while it works, the majority of power needs to be diverted to the weapon. Still, when supported by a supplementary fleet, it more than proves itself. It is unknown how many of these battleships are in existence, but there are no fewer than twenty spread throughout the War and Protection Fleets.

* * *

**STRUCTURE : THE DEFILERS**

Since the beginning of the Consortium, their most infamous and effective tools have been the Defilers. They were placed in charge of a majority of Consortium operations and only Zann, Urai, and a select few others had any sort of authority over them. Their responsibilities ranged from sabotage, assassination, diplomacy, management, and more.

Tyber Zann was obsessed with reliability in what he clearly saw as his most useful assets, and when he initiated the Defiler Program, he made do with what he could find. Teenage orphans were preferable, though a good portion of his Defilers consisted of men kidnapped and subjected to his crude brainwashing programs.

These programs were based on several Imperial research projects, and while they were effective, they had side-effects of personality loss, mental disorders, and sometimes killing subjects. The more developed the subject was, the more likely the brainwashing would fail. Repeated brainwashings were effective, though the critical capabilities of Defilers were reduced. This was not an issue for Zann, as he only needed tools to perform somewhat complex tasks (consider that the Consortium was nowhere as sophisticated and refined as it is today – many operations involved intimidation, combat, and assassination. Diplomacy was not considered as important).

Over time, the distinctive red armoring of the Defilers came to represent the Consortium to the majority of individuals aware of the criminal empire. In that period, Defilers were more varied, coming from all sizes and species. They were exclusively male due to the advantages of female Defilers being reduced due to continuous brainwashing and the focus of the Defilers as a more militaristic arm of the Consortium.

Over the years, the Defiler Program has been refined significantly, with Zann in his last years moving to just raising orphaned boys within the Consortium and conditioning them that way with limited brainwashing. These Defilers were notably more effective, and Zann created several different training regimes to specialize them.

Generation II Defilers were developed a short time before Urai took command, as he believed there needed to be a revision in the purpose and capabilities of the program itself. He felt more could be done with it, and invested significant resources into investigating the feasibility of growing gene-edited operatives from a series of templates.

There were very few Gen-II Defilers put into active service from my understanding, as the majority were failures - the concept was largely untested and didn't fit the requirements of what Urai wanted. However, a few successes were born and were so far beyond baseline humans that Urai tended to utilize them more for management and strategy than in field work.

Four Gen-II Defilers existed, and while the Gen-III Defilers are more stable and refined, they do not possess the intellectual and adaptable capabilities of Gen-II Defilers. It is suspected that at least one or two of these Defilers still exist, as their lifespans are likely well beyond the normal range, and they were too valuable for them to be deployed recklessly. Consortium records do state the confirmed deaths of two, but fail to mention if any of the generation is left.

Something to consider. They could very well be in operation now. Unfortunately, no physical details were able to be recovered on them, but they would be noticeably older, and as they are from an older generation, would be male humans.

Regardless of the failings of the Gen-II Defilers, they paved the way for the Defilers that exist today. Gen-III Defilers were conceptualized soon after Talia Zann began developing the Hundred-Year Plan with Urai, which involved a reinvigoration of the Defilers. There were a few important aspects to the Gen-III Defilers.

Every single one of them would be grown with doubled acceleration. This would allow the Consortium to acquire at least twenty to thirty years of peak performance before retiring them, and them being grown would ensure that they couldn't be infiltrated and had the ability to develop them within the Consortium from the very beginning.

All the Defilers would be exclusively human from a variety of templates which would be enhanced genetically to be faster, stronger, and smarter than the average human. These would include males and female, as alien species would be an unjustified cost for little benefit. No Defiler would be under one point eight two meters, and each would receive conditioning and control chips making them immune to betraying the Consortium.

Unlike the original Defilers, Gen-III Defilers would be able to develop their own personalities to an extent, much like Gen-II Defilers were originally intended. Talia believed they would be more 'motivated' to willingly serve the Consortium if they were allowed a degree of human connection, though this is incapable of overriding their innate loyalty to the Consortium. This has proven to be a correct decision, as the Defilers now are regarded highly due to the supposed 'humanity' they possess, which puts clients more at ease.

The final component to the program was the refinement of the Specialization Regimes Tyber Zann instituted near the end of his life. These were to be heavily expanded and improved, to ensure that the Defilers were fully capable of carrying out their tasks. This is a good time to note that Defilers are _not_ one-size-fits-all tools anymore. Visually, they always look the same. In function, they could very likely have completely different skill sets from other Defilers.

These are the Specialization Regimes that are currently utilized by the Consortium.

Assassination, Intimidation, and Sabotage: Defilers within this program are trained in the art of death. They are given access to the most dangerous firearms in the galaxy and by the end will be able to identify almost any weapon on sight, as well as have an intimate knowledge of how each one works. They are trained by bounty hunters, trackers, and ex-intelligence officials in tracking down and eliminating targets with or without collateral damage. You will be interested to note that one of Cynthia's contracts with the Consortium involves the training of Defilers in this specialization.

They receive some psychological education in regard to being deployed to intimidate, threaten, or extort individuals, as well as physical and psychological torture classes with practice on live individuals (typically inferior slaves). Their final piece of training revolves around sabotage of major and minor systems, vehicles, and buildings, as they receive training from explosives experts and are educated in electronics and architectural engineering.

Diplomacy and Manipulation: The diplomatic arm of the Defilers, those who enter this program are put through a battery of classes with a focus on a half-dozen fields of xenopsychology (human, near-human, hutt, chiss, and killik), four fields of specialized psychology (Jedi, criminal, Imperial, chiss), and finally three fields of political science (Alliance, Imperial, chiss)

I am not sure why there is a distinct focus on the chiss, and the closest theory we have is that Xabiar is one of the most frequent clients of the Consortium, and perhaps implies that they are considering trying to break into the Ascendancy? Not important for now.

The purpose of these Defilers is to acquire and assist in the management of new clients. They are affable, well-spoken, and professional, and have an uncanny ability to tailor themselves to what is best able to manipulate the client. They are responsible for writing detailed dossiers on their assignments, and are additionally trained by freelance assassins and ex-intelligence agents.

These are not the most dangerous Defilers from a physical standpoint, but they are far more important in terms of expanding the influence of the Consortium.

Racket Creation and Management: Each Consortium racket and event is orchestrated and managed by a Defiler, no matter how big or small. As should be expected, these Defilers are educated in all major fields of economics, three psychology fields (revolving around addiction and marketing), as well as a number of creative arts classes such as holovid creation, digital art, and music production.

While optional, a surprising number of these Defilers appear to be writers as well, and some write novels on the side to provide an additional revenue stream for the Consortium. _Three_ of the books written by these Defilers are galactic bestsellers, and they all focus on the collapse of significant galactic institutions, such as the Alliance, the Empire, and the Jedi.

While I doubt these Defilers would put such obvious hints as to their plans in literal novels, it is something worth looking over.

For the most part, however, these Defilers manage their operations with near-droid-like focus, while making sure to work on slowly increasing growth, adapting to economic changes, and ensuring that law enforcement is predicted and mitigated.

Slave Grooming and Development: Defilers placed into this program perform a function we had previously been unaware of until now. We had assumed that slaves were handled by a specialized team, and while this is technically accurate, we did not realize that they were managed by a highly specialized group of Defilers.

Defilers who are in this specialization appear to fulfill two roles – teaching and grooming. They, for lack of a better word, fill the role of parent figures for the young slaves during their earlier development. They are responsible for teaching them language, basic education, and rules of being a slave.

This extends to more specialized skills – both education and otherwise – that the Defilers oversee and teach. These Defilers receive additional conditioning to ensure that they do not become attached to their wards, and as such, these Defilers are notably more reserved and mechanical than their brethren.

The only final notes on the Defilers as a whole worth considering are their equipment. Their armor is distinctly red and while initial Defilers took inspiration from Mandalorian armor, modern Defilers clearly take greater inspiration from Clone Wars-era Republic clone troopers and Imperial Stormtroopers as it is more sleek and refined in comparison to the segmented pieces of earlier iterations. The helmet is largely unchanged, however, and is a highly-developed – if more fragile – piece of equipment.

It is, I would describe, a Mandalorian helmet if you added the inverted triangle of Darth Vader's mouthpiece onto it. It also supports several armored antennas, giving the helmet a greater range of communication than other similar pieces. Defilers almost never take off their helmets, and appear to only do so when they are alone or with other Consortium peers.

Weaponry varies, and they have no standard armament. Their loadout completely depends on the mission, though they tend to prefer long-range and disruptor weaponry.

If it is not completely clear by now, Defilers are exceptionally trained and intelligent. We cannot afford to underestimate them or consider them merely as _one_ specific thing. They can be assassins, diplomats, saboteurs, teachers, and soldiers. The only good news we learned was that there are no more than ten thousand currently deployed, which is a relatively low number for an organization this size.

* * *

**STRUCTURE : BLACK MARKET MANAGEMENT**

Black markets are nothing new in the galaxy. So long as there are illegal items, weapons, equipment, and substances, there will always be those willing to skirt the law to get what they want, provided they have the credits to do so. Black markets are usually – at best – in a sectioned off and shady building in a city or backwater planet. Looks really don't matter. You only go for the goods, and if they have what you want, you're happy.

However, most black markets tend to have the same pieces of equipment. Military-grade weapons, imported animals or beasts, sometimes experimental and unsanctioned technology, rare items for collectors such as genuine _beskar_ Mandalorian suits or a working lightsaber. Very rarely do these break the mold of offering something truly _exemplary_. Which, to most, isn't bad.

However, the Zann Consortium does not cater to the ordinary of the galaxy.

The black markets run by the Consortium are only available to the criminal elite of the galaxy, of which even the hutts don't bother competing with since it would require a higher investment than they are willing to put up. They are also not ongoing or restricted to one particular location. The word is put out months ahead of time, which will reach certain individuals who will then be given instructions on how to register.

This is an exclusive event. The Consortium does not allow just anyone to visit their markets. We were unfortunately unable to confirm exactly _what_ criteria the Consortium uses to clear their guests, but we suspect it is examining their financial state, job or station, political connections and affiliation, and likely a few psychological factors.

There will usually be a specific theme or collection which is advertised, intending to draw a specific crowd. Some markets will carry weaponry, others armoring and battlesuits. Still more are exceptionally specialized, such as Jedi and Sith memorabilia, or Force-related artifacts. How detailed or general the Consortium advertises their markets as appears to depend on how much of one thing they have at a time – or this could be deliberate to continually throw off people as to what they _actually_ have.

Returning to the subject of the markets, they are held in some of the most prestigious places in the galaxy, each paid for by a one-time shell company backed by the Consortium for 'business events.' These are in suites and ballrooms, from the 500 Republica on Coruscant to the Star Cluster Casino on Nar Shaddaa. The Consortium will pay millions of credits for a one-night event – because they will make it all back with only a few sales.

Inside, the guests are treated exceptionally well, and as this is designed to be both a business venture and social event, guests are encouraged to talk to each other as they browse the various items for sale. Refreshments will be served, of course, and tailored to species and cultures present. Consortium slaves carry out these duties while live music plays in the background.

The items for sale will almost always be nearly impossible to find anywhere else. Merely illegal technology is considered _dull_ at events like these. The clients who visit these events are not looking for a single weapon or item, they want something _exceptional_. Diseases and viruses tailor-made to target specific species or bloodlines; nanoweapons able to control others or wipe out planets; plans for new, complete, or unfinished superweapons are in greater demand than you would expect.

Some items are more obscure, but nonetheless irreplaceable finds that are certainly legitimate, as the Consortium requires verification of all items before being sold. Some of what has been sold is somewhat unbelievable and seems to be – to myself – wild pointless chases across the galaxy. There's been descriptions of tombs filled with rakatan mind prisons, and planets which house factories under their surfaces. Yet it is tantalizing enough for many to buy, simply for the potential such a discovery might yield.

Sometimes it isn't even something physical, but information. Computer viruses, intelligence on certain individuals, holovids of certain events, secrets and knowledge just waiting for someone to pay a small fortune to possess. The Consortium does not care what anyone does with the things they buy, so long as it doesn't interfere with their own business.

The security at these events is, as you would imagine, _tight_. The managing Defiler personally greets and checks the identity of each guest, and the Yellow Vests are strewn throughout the room, and in front of all entries and exits. For safety, the Consortium always rents out the entire floor, and has garrisons of Yellow Vests standing by in case things go very wrong. There are also ysalamiri spread throughout the entire event, and the cages are specialized and decorated, and are essentially treated as an exotic addition to the event, which will only disturb a certain kind of client.

However, many usually do not notice the heavy security due to the calming atmosphere, attractive slaves, items for sale, and chatting with their peers. The protection simply fades into the background, and trouble is usually quickly and swiftly dealt with. But the Consortium is always watching, and the innocent-looking slaves are listening and reporting everything they hear to the overseeing Defiler.

The clientele for these market events have apparently attracted some very high-profile individuals. All of the highest-paid and lethal bounty hunters in the galaxy have at least attended these events once, and every terrorist, crime lord, and assassin of note has also participated once. I'm not sure how everyone else felt when Xabiar walked into the room with a smile on his face, but if anyone felt uneasy, they weren't brave enough to verbally express it.

I should note that it isn't uncommon for one of the Consortium leaders to grace these events with their presence. Tyrell Zann in particular enjoys hosting them and chatting up the guests. Urai Fen has also joined such events, though isn't quite as talkative. Tora Zann notably detests these events, which Tyrell and Urai are likely grateful for.

Black Market Management itself can be divided into four different divisions:

Guest Management and Invitation: This division is responsible for sending out and reviewing the guest list for a particular market. The initial invitations are sent out and sanctioned by the Defiler in charge, and as additional requests come in, background investigation is (presumably) performed and the guests are either accepted or rejected.

Vendors are also handled by this division, and their items are validated and cleared for sale, and the price to host them is negotiated, as well as the fee for any successful sale. The Consortium tends to take a minimum of ten percent per item sold, and the hosting fee is waived if a vendor sells out completely, giving extra incentive to vendors who want to make a little extra money.

You may be wondering if the Consortium usually buys items before they go to sale, given what they have access too. The answer is surprisingly no, and it is one of the reasons the markets are such an event. Tyrell Zann has stated that "Such actions taken would undermine the integrity of this event, and if we want one of the many items that are hosted, we will bid and buy it when everyone else has the opportunity to."

How principled.

He isn't making it up either. The Consortium absolutely buys things at their own markets, though this is usually pretty rare, and oddly enough, on extremely obscure items and pieces of information seemingly of little use. Tyrell and Xabiar once entered into a pretend bidding war over a defunct rakatan artifact while both of them were chuckling to themselves as if it was some kind of inside joke.

On a side note, we should find it concerning that this terrorist appears to be on good terms with Tyrell Zann. Birds of a feather and all that.

On-Site Security: While simple and straightforward in concept, this is more involved than one might expect. Organized by the Defiler overseer, it requires hand-picking the Yellow Vests, security systems, and slaves which are to be utilized. Specific contingencies are drawn up and drilled in replica buildings months beforehand, as well as training to take down any individuals who could potentially become 'troublesome.' If any important Consortium figures such as Tyrell are present, adjustments need to be made to take into account extra security.

I wonder how safe guests would feel if they knew the Yellow Vests 'protecting them' had a plan to kill each and every individual in the room, and more importantly, how to do it when as few people as possible were watching.

Item Procurement and Itinerary: I will immediately note that 'Item Procurement' does not refer to any of the items for sale. The Consortium does not actually sell anything directly at these events, as that is done through more traditional channels. It refers exclusively to the actual furniture and infrastructure necessary to host the event. Your tables, chairs, glasses, food, and drinks, which need to take into account multiple species on the guest lists.

They need to allocate chefs, slaves, transport, and hire musicians and event planners, you get the picture. They are, in a word, the 'party planners.' They determine the atmosphere, the theme, and are the ones who actually rent the location through a disposable shell company, and decide when and how everything will happen. So-called 'impromptu' speeches that Tyrell will sometimes give are completely scripted, as are most 'disturbances' such as a person showing up rejected on the guest list (anyone who legitimately tried this would be taken to the next room and shot), or a slave spilling a platter of food and being dragged away by the Yellow Vests.

All theatre. Prevents the night from becoming too dull, and acts as a fine distraction to make the guests feel amused, protected, and elevated in their exclusive status. After all, they are _clearly_ superior to the fool who was kicked out of this very event.

It's impressive, the tricks the Consortium will pull to secure their audience. Can't deny that it's effective.

Market Finance and Projection: This is the most mundane of the divisions, and is responsible solely for allocating money away for the markets, as well as predicting their estimated earnings over the course of the event. It is very straightforward and there is little to really talk about here. They essentially figure out how much it will cost, and how much they are going to make.

I suppose the only thing of note is that cost is not really an issue for them - considering we recovered a report showing that the Consortium made over _five hundred million_ credits in one night, I can see how cost would not be an issue. Interestingly enough, the markets appear to be held at least once every galactic financial quarter, although some years they will only hold three markets, instead of four.

Still, interesting to note.

* * *

**STRUCTURE : THE CONSORTIUM RACKETS**

The various criminal rackets of the galaxy are by no means difficult to stumble upon, even within the Alliance, and unless we take inspiration from the Imperials, they are not going away anytime soon. And in the Outer Rim, rackets are massive businesses - particularly gambling and pit fighting.

You will be unsurprised to learn that the Zann Consortium runs their own rackets in these fields, though as they do with everything, they have turned it from a hidden and obscure thing to participate in, to a high-society event. This is one area where there is actual competition from the hutts in terms of scale and quality, although the audiences both attract are still _very_ different.

The Consortium also on average makes far more than the hutts, even if their events are rarer. There are multiple different rackets the Consortium runs, and each type has a different group working to oversee them. Keep in mind that _each_ racket is managed by a Defiler, and this document will cover the different types of rackets the Consortium runs, not necessarily specific ones, though examples will be utilized.

The Gambling Rackets: Out of all of the operations that the Consortium runs, this may in fact be the most 'legal' if you want to use that word to describe anything run by the Consortium. '_Tame_' may be a better word, as the Gambling Rackets are actually very straightforward and generally no more nefarious than standard gambling casinos.

The Consortium again has largely designed these to be places of social interaction – providing a venue away from any kind of law enforcement to discuss things with your criminal peers, while also playing some high-stakes sabacc. And if high stakes aren't your thing, there are plenty of other games to play.

The Consortium invests a significant amount on actual licensing, oddly enough. Which is why there is a significant amount of diversity in their gambling centers in terms of what kind of games are offered, both solo and group. The Consortium also has areas showing various sporting events taking place, and facilitates additional gambling on them, both high-stakes and standard.

These rackets are notable for the fact that they are the only part of the Consortium that has a significant amount of crossover with the more unknowing public. Many of the locations the Consortium controls are not advertised as such, and only known to a very few people. They are actually legal in most of Alliance Space, though maintained under false names and purposes to the Alliance Registry, though since they pay their fair share of taxes, no one seems interested in investigating too closely.

However, should a person be carrying a pass, they are allowed to enter. This obviously introduces security issues for the Consortium, at least in Alliance territory, and we suspect that any 'new' clients that show up are quietly profiled and observed to determine how likely it is that they could pose issues.

To accomplish this, they will generally be targeted by the staff, utilizing Consortium slaves disguised as patrons to get them talking, and giving them a good enough experience that they will be less incentivized to bring it down. For the first few nights, arriving new guests will have their actions unknowingly watched every step of the way.

Security itself, at least in Alliance territory, is handled with some delicacy, since they don't necessarily want – or need – patrons to know that the Consortium is running the establishment. Security is supposedly 'standard,' and what people don't realize is that the suited men and women of all species are actually not Consortium security, but specially trained slaves. The _real_ security is the Defiler who observes the night, with a small garrison of Yellow Vests should they become required. The Defiler overseer never shows themselves in these locations either.

It is a different story for the Consortium casinos that populate the Outer Rim, and the Consortium doesn't bother hiding itself there. Security is openly handled by the Yellow Vests, and in the major casinos it isn't uncommon for Tyrell to visit on nights to drive up engagement. Granted, the Consortium still only accepts a certain class of clientele, but it's a lot easier to actually begin the process than hoping a mutual acquaintance gets you a pass.

Interestingly, the Consortium casinos are very specialized for _only_ gambling and gaming. They don't have hotels, prostitution services, or recreational drug services. However, the Consortium intends the casinos to act as something as a gateway to the wider services of the Consortium, as if a guest inquires about such services, well, the Consortium is more than happy to discuss an arrangement at a later time.

It's worth noting that the Consortium appears to have essentially given up on setting these up in the Empire. Imperial Intelligence has made a concerted effort to find and stamp out all Consortium interference, and the fact that their society is so tightly controlled makes it very easy to note when suspicious activity happens.

The Arms Rackets: One of the smaller divisions of business within the Consortium has to do with their production of high-quality weapons which include explosives, rifles, heavy weapons, and the few and rare exotics. This is another quasi-legal division as the Consortium acts through Mandal Hypernautics as a proxy.

Their weapons, while not exactly unique in comparison to the others of the galaxy, are rated extremely highly and due to their clientele, are in the hands of too many private security companies and armies for us to be comfortable with. They take custom orders, allow weapon tests on vacant planets, and are more than fine with using their slaves in simulated battles to showcase their capabilities in a live-fire situation.

They specialize in mass driver weapons, but are also producers of standard blaster technology. Especially valuable clients are able to purchase more exotic (and illegal) weaponry such as disruptor weapons, chemical weapons, nuclear warheads, and double-step mines. All of these are also shown off and demonstrated should the client request it.

It should be noted that the quality – even if it is of a high quality – appears to be inferior in slight ways to the equipment the Consortium actually uses. This is likely because there is a non-zero chance that Consortium forces may encounter enemies with these weapons, and it gives them additional advantages because they know the _exact_ capabilities of an enemy force – and as such, can prepare accordingly.

A less profitable, yet highly disruptive use for the racket is by starting gang wars in the territory of rivals. If, by some coincidence, one of the weaker gangs suddenly got their hands on exceptionally dangerous weaponry and began waging a war street by street, it would be a shame if the one overseeing the city or town was forced to deal with it instead of focusing on other things. As well as making them more open to the possibility of making a deal to end it.

Usually, when the Consortium strikes deals like this, it is usually in return for a share of whatever the gang loots or collects, instead of a flat payment. The _actual_ payment is the disruption and chaos they cause – not the credits the Consortium can make out of it. The Alliance and Empire are fortunately warning all their affiliates and contractors to not do business with Mandal Hypernautics, which is a rare moment of sanity for the Senate.

Yes, I am aware that Mandal Hypernautics is still trying to lobby to have this restriction lifted. Make sure to pass along to any senator considering it that they would be directly funding the illegal drug, weapon, and slave trade. Include pictures too.

The Gladiator Rackets: This was an example that was given earlier in this report, but it is time to go through it in more details. Pit fighting of both animals and sapients is nothing new in the galaxy, and appeals to a certain crowd who enjoy the thrill the bloodsport provides. It is easier than you think to get swept up in the excitement of an event, forgetting the very real people dying for your entertainment.

However, mere pit fighting is boring to the Consortium. Talia Zann considered it a pointless waste of time, an event that "Only appeals to the petty criminal and thug" and that is quite clearly not good enough. She also didn't fail to note the potential for such a market, as many of the rich criminal classes went to such events. I will quote Talia again when she was asked as to why the Consortium handles the rackets the way they do, as it is pertinent to the mindset of the Consortium as a whole.

"It is a matter of repetition. The thrill and excitement exists the first few times, but soon after you begin to wonder why you bother. It becomes monotonous, _boring_, stale. Why is it exciting to see a poorly geared slave fighting against an ackley? You already know the outcome, and unlike the bloodthirsty clientele that so often permeates these events, you are here for the tension and entertainment such fights _should_ bring. Why bother becoming invested if the outcome is decided beforehand? Why bother becoming excited if you are continuing to watch the same beast fights and mismatched and poorly trained slaves fight each other? Come now, we can do _better_ than that."

It feels inadequate to describe what the Consortium produces as 'pit fights' or 'gladiator matches.' It fails to capture the _spectacle_ of these highly controlled and exclusive events. Invitations are generally handled like the markets, with a select few receiving invitations and then handling requests for invites in the months leading up to the event itself, which can be accepted or denied by the Defiler overseer.

From what we have learned, the Consortium has no fewer than _four decades_ of these events planned out. Granted, they only host three to four a year, and due to the scale and sophistication of the events, this makes sense. But it speaks to just how much the Consortium is planning ahead, as well as the expectation that their operations will last and continue to grow.

It's likely that the locations are selected and prepared entire years in advance, as the Consortium has to acquire equipment, personnel, slaves, and infrastructure before they even send out the invitations. These locations are generally on underdeveloped or untouched locations of all varieties, and due to this, they always include transportation as a bonus to all guests.

The entry fee is exorbitant, with _low_ prices starting at ten million credits, and going as high as fifty million. In return for this, the guests get treated to a once-in-a-lifetime event with all expenses taken care of. They get luxury lodging and transport, personally suggested cuisine and drink, and the option to select a personalized escort for the event should they want it. There is no request or suggestion too small that the Consortium will not be able to take care of.

Security for these events is exceptionally tight, and it is suspected that the 'free travel' offered is a means of the Consortium ensuring the location can't be leaked later, and there is an absurd amount of Yellow Vest security, along with the Defiler overseer who makes regular rounds. A few schematics acquired show that the Consortium also installs hidden cameras, autoturrets, and chemical dispensers throughout the premises. Like their other events, they are more than willing to take drastic action if things get out of hand.

As to the actual events themselves, they are unique and varied. They are usually some kind of recreation or reenactment of a historical event, or, in some cases, simulations of various groups. The Clone Wars example was given previously in this report, and other similar events they have created were the Battle of Hoth, the Battle of Endor, multiple battles from the Third Imperial Civil War, and even a few from the Old Republic Era, such as the Battle of Alderaan, all complete with era-appropriate equipment and weapons.

The actual 'participants' for these events are either slaves or clones, who are grown to a speed where they would be at their peak, as they will be disposed of after the event no matter what happens. Slave participants are actually freed, should they be on the winning side. All of them receive a few years of training to make them reasonably trained, and for all intents and purposes, the fights that take place are completely unscripted, which again adds to the excitement of the evening.

There are plenty of gambling opportunities the Consortium provides as well, on which side will win. In a few cases – such as a simulated space battle between Imperial and Alliance ships – they've allowed guests to send 'intelligence' to one side or the other about what their opponent is doing or suggestions on what to do. The battles are shown through dozens of cameras that can be switched by the audience at will, from a wider perspective or up-close in the command centers. All recordings are archived and provided to guests as a free bonus, with the condition that distribution will not be allowed.

It should be noted that there is a distinct lack of Force-based events, which is largely to do with the inability to reliably clone powerful Force-sensitives, and the amount of training required – even for the Consortium – simply isn't worth it if they're going to be disposed of later. I suppose the Consortium could include these eventually, and if they do, that will likely be one of their largest events ever produced.

Other types of these events including the invitation of some of the most dangerous warriors and bounty hunters in the galaxy competing in an arena or planet with the winner(s) taking home millions of credits, or if the Consortium is feeling very creative, they privately hire two top-level bounty hunters or assassins, and give them the name of their opponent – without telling them the other has the same objective.

The audience is then treated to observing both contestants (who willingly install cameras in their gear) track down their targets, which culminates in an exciting conclusion between them with only one emerging victorious. Sometimes the Consortium will send them after an independent target or object, and it becomes a race to see which participant is better.

In short, if you're rich and are inclined towards bloodsport, then there is no finer a night than at an event hosted by the Zann Consortium.

The Holo Rackets: This is a catch-all term for the racket of the Consortium that is exclusively digital and among the most insidious. Nearly all of the content produced is illegal in Alliance Space and typically locked behind paywalls. Honestly, the name is misleading, as this is essentially the division which produces pornography.

Now, this is already covered for the most part by quite a few specialty businesses, but the Consortium has carved out a niche by producing extremely high-quality holovids depicting extreme sexual actions and fetishes. Due to their extremely large and diverse number of slaves, they can produce a large amount of diverse content for multiple species, and due to the extreme nature of the content itself, they can charge a premium for it – and they do.

It isn't necessary to go into absurd detail as to what that covers, but let's say it covers legitimate torture, cannibalism, rape – with both adult and child variants. There are a concerning number of sick people in the galaxy, and that is who the Consortium caters to here.

It should also not be surprising that the Consortium also produces short snuff holovids, of both a sexual and non-sexual manner. And no, these are not fake. They use slaves for these as well and have no issues disposing of them to create an 'authentic' product. And unfortunately, there are enough depraved people in the galaxy to make it not only financially viable, but extremely profitable.

They operate through a variety of fake companies and self-hosted HoloNet sites that the Alliance legally can't take down, we can only block them within our own territory. Something which is easily circumvented by VPNs or finding one of the many bootleg sites the Consortium operates from. For some reason, the Consortium also has some kind of legal team that is actively searching through the HoloNet and copyright striking all uploads that are not from a Consortium source.

As fast as the Alliance works to take them down when they can, they just keep coming back. At least it makes it easy for our people to update our databases on people who actually watch this stuff.

The Protection Rackets: Not all of the Consortium is focused on providing a service to clients. Those who get in their way will find themselves being targeted by the Consortium. They are typically political, media, military, and law enforcement figures on a local level who are most vulnerable to being targeted by the Protection Rackets.

These have two purposes – the first it to isolate and mitigate any political or physical threat these individuals pose, and the second is to extract certain concessions from them. What exactly this is depends on where the target is located. Criminal or Outer Rim targets will be extorted for credits, and those with political connections in the Alliance will typically need to provide some kind of information, which is usually 'benign' in the sense of it being itineraries, HoloNet addresses, chat logs, and information of that nature. Which, as you may know, is ripe for blackmail or otherwise actionable intelligence.

How it begins is that the individual targeted will be approached by a Defiler who poses as a security official or other military figure who can reliably meet with them without major suspicion. Accepting will mean the Defiler will meet and continue the operation as normal. Declining will simply mean the Defiler shows up at their house one day, waiting to talk.

The offer is fairly straightforward, the Defiler will offer 'protection' from any threats to their city, business, or livelihood, in return for certain payment which is to be decided. In some cases, especially in more dangerous areas (particularly on Coruscant, Taris, and Corellia), this is a legitimate offer and has led to conditions _improving_ when the Consortium becomes involved, and some of the more gullible targets fully buy into the 'protection' offered.

And if there is not a problem the Consortium can fix? They simply create or exacerbate a problem that exists. Peaceful cities could suddenly find themselves the site of a new gang war, or a previously controlled drug epidemic begins spiraling out of control. Prominent city officials are bribed, assassinated, or threatened. Media could suddenly find itself under new management and begin running smear pieces on the target or those associated with them.

There would be repeated contacts between the Defiler and target, and the need for 'protection' would grow more and more after each visit. After a certain amount of time, the Defiler will either remove the target and install a more willing individual, or engineer the removal of the target through political pressure.

It should be noted that the Consortium does not use these tactics on high-profile or influential figures on important planets. They have a separate department for those kinds of targets.

The Political Rackets: These are among the most insidious of the rackets due to how they operate. The Consortium decides to target a particular politician or lawmaker who has a degree of influence – to the point where attempting a Protection Racket is infeasible – for the purposes of corrupting them – willingly or otherwise.

The cyber security of the politician is targeted, and eventually the Consortium will have access to their profiles, internal communications, and campaign materials. With these, they will begin to put together a profile on the target, as well as their specific tastes and vices. Accessing HoloNet history is a major component of this kind of operation.

In most cases they will identify a clear vector to begin influencing them. The first thing they will do is cross-check to see if their target is acquaintances with any other clients of the Consortium, and if they are, they will suggest to said client that they are always looking for new clients and to send anyone who may be interested their way. Sometimes the name of the target will be suggested.

Depending on the inclinations of the target, they may reach out to see if an arrangement can be made, and in those cases the objective is complete. The Defiler will meet and arrange to provide them with whatever they want – for a modest price, of course, and this also puts them on a client list which will allow them potential access to the other events the Consortium holds. A distinct win-win for everyone involved, and the Consortium now has another politician they can reliably influence – or at least now has a vested interest in not rocking the boat.

And if they do not? Well, the Consortium doesn't reach out directly, but begins acquiring blackmail material. If they have private affairs with prostitutes, the Consortium will link them up with underage slave unknowingly while recording the whole event. If they have a drug addiction, they will find footage of the act and perhaps show that taxpayer money was used for it. Or sometimes it's something as simple as their records where they accept bribes, their HoloNet history, and more. If there isn't anything significant, they will fabricate criminal connections, visits, and other unsavory pieces of information into devices, HoloNet sites, and other mediums that could reliably ruin their careers and lives.

They will typically reach out when enough material has been acquired, and make their demands. They never reveal it is the Consortium, but merely a third party. From there, the Consortium will work to groom the target into cooperating more willingly – sometimes sending rewards for good behavior – all of which only add to the blackmail file.

This is an important point to consider, whether the political clients are willing or not.

Because while the Consortium obscures this little detail well from their most valuable clients, they keep thousands of gigabytes worth of blackmail material on these figures. Every business transaction is recorded by cameras in Defiler armor, or from the dozens of hidden cameras in venues. Every drug shipment, slave bought, or sexual encounter in the presence of the Consortium is recorded and stored away in the event that they become _problematic_ in the future.

So why risk all the benefits you get with a good relationship with the Zann Consortium?

That is exactly why so many of their clients find it easier to just relax and enjoy the fruits of their criminal enterprises and illegal addictions. It's much easier than contemplating just how sharp the sword is that the Consortium is perpetually holding above their necks.

* * *

**STRUCTURE : THE GOLDEN BOARD**

Another of the more… _benign_… operations of the Consortium, is the management of the Golden Board, which in the simplest terms is a bounty board used by the rich, the most elite bounty hunters in the galaxy, as well as freelance assassins and hitmen. Very few actually know that the Consortium is behind the Golden Board, and most consider them a third-party service that is by now a requirement for anyone who wants to rise in the ranks of bounty hunters.

There are a few distinct services the Golden Board provides. The first are those who want to post bounties. The Consortium will typically only allow contracts to be posted if there is a minimum credit threshold reached (suspected to be over half a million credits) for the purposes of weeding out small-timers and riffraff.

The Consortium takes a five percent processing fee to host the bounty, and if the contract is fulfilled, another five percent. If thirty galactic standard days pass and the contract has not been taken, the Consortium will fully refund the processing fee, and if a contact is taken, but failed to be fulfilled, the Consortium will not charge again to rehost the contract. That said, if the contract is modified in _any_ way, then it will be treated as a separate contract and require a processing fee. There are no limits or requirements for contracts - they could be targeting the Imperial Sovereigns and the Consortium would not care - they only need to ensure that the contract can be paid if fulfilled; so, the contracts can be first come first serve, standing for whoever completes it first, or exclusive to specific groups or hunters.

In the event that a contract is fulfilled but the one who posted it cannot or refuses to pay, the Consortium will pay the one(s) who fulfilled the contract the difference, and blacklist the offending host, and quite possible target him for future operations. The Golden Board is not anonymous to the Consortium – they know _everyone_ who has posted or completed a contract.

The Golden Board itself operates through business outposts in the Outer Rim (such as Tatooine) and Mid-Rim (such as Takodana), as well as major city hubs such as Nar Shaddaa, Coruscant, and Corellia. It also maintains a section within the primary headquarters of the Bounty Hunters Guild. It is, much like the casinos on Alliance planets, staffed exclusively by disguised specialized slaves, with hidden garrisons of Yellow Vests and an overseeing Defiler always watching. Golden Board contracts have to be accepted in one of these stations, and is not accessible over the HoloNet.

The other half of the Golden Board deals with the bounty hunters and freelancers that use the service. Only veterans of the trade are allowed to access these exclusive contracts, and this generally involves providing references, a proven track record of success, and a degree of professionalism. The Golden Board has morphed to be a staple of elite hunter culture at this point, and it's certainly an interesting sight to see so many famous and infamous hunters meet at the same place. The fact that they are guaranteed payment if they complete a contract, regardless of if the host can pay or not is an incredible incentive to utilize it regularly.

It is also worth noting that the Consortium itself also uses the Golden Board to post their own bounties, though they obscure their involvement through proxies, and generally only reveal themselves if the contract is fulfilled, as they are continually looking out for talent to be able to call upon in the future. Consortium contracts pay _extremely_ well and provide so many additional amenities that quite a few hunters are essentially Consortium agents in their own right – Cynthia being the most obvious example of this.

You will likely notice that this is perhaps an area vulnerable to some degree of penetration from other governments or organizations, hiring proxies to access the Golden Board and potentially accepting contracts on behalf of a third party. This is… presumably something the Consortium is aware of, and they don't necessarily care about. There really isn't too much to really learn from the Golden Board outside who may want who captured or killed. It's a good way to find out the best bounty hunters or assassins in the galaxy, but honestly, any decent intelligence service is going to know who these people are without going to elaborate lengths such as this.

Something to consider.

* * *

**STRUCTURE : DRUG DEVELOPMENT CONTROL**

The drug production division of the Zann Consortium is rather interesting from a purely organizational, financial, and utilization standpoint. The illegal drug trade is worth trillions of credits and is the foundation of many crime lords, criminal empires, and of course, cartels.

The goal is to make money, and this is done by getting your clients addicted to whatever you are selling, and the more buyers, the more money, and the one running it takes a big cut, and invests a smaller amount back into the project. Essentially, every drug operation works like this, and most tend to specialize in a certain drug or offshoot. Hutts dominate the spice trade, the Black Sun produces ryll and hallucinogens, and you don't have to look far to find cheap and destructive knockoffs of all of those.

Here is where the Consortium differs – the drug trade is _not_ a source of revenue – it is a tool and weapon they use against their rivals and enemies.

While we were unable to obtain hard records, it's extremely likely that the Consortium actively _loses_ money on the drug trade, since the way they operate is designed in such a way that profit is almost impossible – which doesn't matter since the point of the drug trade is _not_ to make money. This will be elaborated on here:

The way the Consortium strangles the drug trade enforced by their rivals – specifically the hutts and various syndicates – is by determining the drug that is being sold, and simply selling a higher purity version of the same drug, usually a strain which has additionally been modified to addict the individual to _only_ that strain of drug.

This is to say that the Consortium essentially sells engspice-esque drugs, although they have to be careful that it's the same drug the users are currently addicted to, otherwise it has been known to simply kill the user. So, in addition to forcibly breaking the user off of rival drugs, and addicting them to their own, they also sell the drug for significantly _lower_ than what the current drug is selling for.

This easily hooks users, and after one use, they will never really go back to what they were using before, and the Consortium will actually give them enough money to _pay_ any kind of debts they have to make retaliation – if not more difficult – more unjustified. These kind of operations in particular make the hutts crazy because they cannot conceive of someone running a drug operation like this _intentionally_. Even worse is that it cuts deeply into the profits, and some have gone so far as to order hits on Consortium dealers (which is often repulsed by the Mercenary Corps), which the Consortium is more than happy to respond to by starting a gang war.

In addition to using it to mitigate the influence of rivals, the Consortium also uses it during their Protection Rackets to start drug epidemics. They use the same drugs and methods, although if they are ordered to stop their operations due to the target relenting, their final dose sold will be a modified strain that removes the addition and acts as 'cure,' even though the body will go through symptoms of withdrawal, which the user only thinks was a bad batch, and then they find that they have no desire to have any more – and the dealers are also mysteriously gone.

This should illustrate just how the Consortium uses the drug trade, something Tlon Fett's Gra'tua also appears to have adopted to an extent.

There are several different divisions within Drug Development Control that handle various aspects of it.

Drug Engineering and Synthesis: Before any drug goes to production, it must first be understood, tampered with, refined, and then tested and retested. This division works to essentially reverse-engineer drugs and then alter the chemical composition to achieve a greater purity and higher addictive result. They are staffed by expert chemists and biologists, whose work on drugs typically goes through several stages.

The first is that they acquire and identify a drug from a target location. Once they determine the drug type, they begin work on trying to produce the highest quality version of the drug possible. When this is achieved, they will begin making slight modifications to the chemical structure to enhance the addictive properties of it. The final stage is developing a non-addictive iteration, which will function as a 'cure' should it be necessary. When this is complete, the drug is ready for production.

Discarded slaves are used throughout the process, and serve to verify if the drug is working as intended. Most slaves will undergo medical non-addictive procedures multiple times to keep them usable for later stages of the process. There are instances of slaves dying from overdoses and fatal drug mixtures, but the Consortium largely does not care about them, and if they die, the attitude is 'better them than our targets.'

Drug Production: Drug production is largely straightforward, though can be a complex process depending on what type of drug needs to be manufactured. Most variants of spice can be developed through fairly standardized means, though particularly rare substances such as glitterstim involve the Consortium building a Kessel mine recreation and cloning and chipping the spiders to do nothing but produce glitterstim, which would then be extracted by slaves and refined afterwards.

They are also responsible for packaging and keeping sales figures. In many cases, they will also provide syringes with extra needles, cigars, and sterilized plates depending on however the user wants to ingest the drugs.

Drug Distribution and Strategy: This division is responsible for taking the produced drugs to the target area and establishing a selling point. Unlike Fett's Gra'tua, the Consortium does not work through third parties, and utilizes their Mercenary Corps for this task, with a Defiler overseer, of course. Throughout the course of the drug's research and production, this division will covertly mark drug users, sellers, and methods they are using to addict their buyers.

A game plan for how to effectively dismantle the drug trade of their rival will be drawn up well before the drug itself is distributed, and the most operations will happen within the span of a few days, usually too fast for the other organization to react quickly enough – which they couldn't really do much about even if there _was_ a reaction.

In this period, the Consortium will also be actively ready to engage in violent action, especially if dealers begin threatening buyers of Consortium product. Heavy buyers will also receive covert protection in the event they are targeted for retaliation. The Consortium will continue to maintain control over the drug trade in this area for as long as necessary, though if the offending organization pulls off-planet completely, operations may be dismantled as the Consortium is simply losing money without any real benefit.

What, did you think they would just raise their prices? That isn't very pro-consumer, now is it?

And the Zann Consortium is nothing, if not pro-consumer – if you are a client, at least.

* * *

**STRUCTURE : SLAVING OPERATION CONTROL**

Slavery is one of the thriving enterprises in the Outer Rim, and is one of the clear scourges on the galaxy that most people universally condemn, yet the problem still persists. However, if you were to ask the average galactic citizen – and even those in the military or government – few, if any, would associate the Zann Consortium as a significant contributor of the slave trade.

In a way, they would be correct.

The Consortium does not sell slaves in the markets or raid planets in search of beings to chain and sell. There are no such things as 'slave raids' that are carried out by the Consortium, but they are, without any shadow of a doubt, responsible for a significant amount of slave trafficking - especially in the Alliance - and are worryingly exceptional at covering it up.

The Consortium has one of the most sophisticated slaving operations in the galaxy, and it is telling that so few are aware of it. In part, this is because the brutality and thuggishness of other parties like the hutts paint a clear picture of what slavery is. It is dirty, beaten women and children chained together and sold on auction stands; it is inspiring stories of slave revolts against their oppressive masters; it is the identifying marks of slavery such as shock collars and electro-whips.

Propaganda, which serves to do more harm than good regarding the public perception of what slavery is. That is a topic for another time, but understand that the slavery the Consortium practices is nowhere near as crude as this.

However, before continuing further, I'd like to perform a thought experiment. Or a test to see how well you've been paying attention throughout the document. By now, there should be a pattern in how the Consortium operates, so before I reveal the depravity that is the Consortium slaving operations, make a guess as to how they run.

Here it is.

The Consortium buys slaves from a variety of markets and vendors across the galaxy. But they are _very_ particular as to what kind of slaves they purchase. They do not buy elderly, crippled, heavily traumatized, or disfigured slaves - dismissing them as 'low quality.' In return, the Consortium pays exceptionally well for slaves that they consider 'high quality.'

Women of all species they pay the most for, men of strong physiques who are humans or near-humans follow, children rank third, and overall slaves who are not suffering from any degenerative conditions are after. There are a few slavers who have done business with the Consortium and typically offer them first pick of the offerings, which the Consortium gratefully accepts.

Newly bought slaves are taken back to Slavery Station where they are cleaned, clothed, and undergo surgery to have control chips implanted in their brains. The Consortium considers shock collars crude and inefficient when a control chip is more reliable, unseen, and modifiable. It also has the benefit of being impossible to remove unless brain surgery is performed, and the chip being fried would also likely cause brain damage or death if overloaded.

Chipped and cleaned, the slaves are now given to medical teams who take skin, hair, saliva, urine, and sperm/egg (depending on gender) samples which are taken away for storage for the moment. They are then subjected to a series of physical tests which push them to the point of exhaustion, with data being collected on how their bodies react.

Further batteries of tests are included, such as marksmanship, educational tests in mathematics, science, engineering/mechanics, and reading comprehension. Psychological interviews are conducted by Defilers as well as participating in memory tests. By this point, there has been an extensive amount of data collected, and the Consortium is far from finished.

Information on sexuality and performance is gathered next, and this is typically carried out by allowing Yellow Vests, Defilers, and the Mercenary Corps (if any untouched slaves remain) to have their pick of the slaves and rape them. Depending on how satisfied the Consortium individual is, they can place a request on the slave in question which will be taken under consideration.

The final battery of tests – provided they have not been marked for preservation for another member of the Consortium - is pain tolerance, and this is where the usefulness of the slave in question comes to an end. They go through a variety of rounds of torture, each focusing on a different part of the body to acquire a thorough understanding of the pain tolerance of the individual. Wounds are generally healed and not permanent until the research team determines that enough data has been gathered. Psychological torture is also included, including sleep deprivation and coercion through other family members should they be also enslaved.

Most experiments will end with a concerted focus to have the slave attempt to commit suicide, and then denying it to determine a mental breaking point. At this instance, the slave is a mental and physical wreck and the Consortium has largely gotten what they need out of them. They are terminated and recycled. The entire process takes between two and three weeks and are done in batches of one hundred.

The Zann Consortium does not do anything else with slaves they buy. This is the fate of _every_ single slave who is sold to them without exception.

The question now transitions to _why_.

What is the point of these tests and data gathered?

It is to produce more slaves, but slaves improved from their base templates and without the psychological trauma that exists to some degree in all slaves. The Consortium has no interest in giving their clients what they view as 'damaged goods,' they are not interested in forcing the slaves to conform to a psychological profile that they can never fit.

So, the solution is to build the slaves from the ground up.

The cloning chambers that are used to create Defilers are only a minority. The vast majority of cloning operations in the Consortium produce slaves. Genetic templates which are perfect copies of the original slave, which have been altered in specific ways to produce several different specialization templates. One can be genetically modified for greater strength, intelligence, flexibility, and attractiveness. Several hundred kaminoans are now employed by the Zann Consortium, and their cloning expertise is responsible for the modern Consortium slave trade.

One thing to note immediately is the fact that the vast majority of grown slaves do not have accelerated growth. _Some_ do, but those are typically laborers and soldiers - the majority do not. They are grown in a vat for however long their natural birthing period is, and then extracted and placed in kaminoan cribs, where they receive designated language flash-training and are tended to by droids.

At four years of age they begin their training. They undergo surgery to have the control chips installed into their brains. They are segregated into specializations, as each and every slave is literally bred for a specific purpose, and the training by Defilers begins. By the age of ten they are heavily conditioned to essentially do whatever their masters demand. As they grow older, their education becomes more complex depending on what they are intended to specialize in.

When the Consortium determines that they fit the criteria for whatever slave specialization the slave is, they will be frozen in carbonite and placed into storage and added to the catalog that the Consortium presents to their clients. Most people do not comprehend just how _massive_ the slaving operations the Consortium runs are now. It required heavy investment of at least twenty years, but thanks to the planning of Talia, and now Tyrell Zann, the operation is stable and self-sustaining.

There are _thousands_ of clones started every week on Spaarti, and it essentially ensures that the Consortium will never run out of a specific _type_ in the future – if indeed they have not reached that point now.

So how does this translate into sales? How could the Consortium market this? We return to the value of customer service.

Their clientele are, like most of their others, usually connected, wealthy, and criminals, people who have very particular tastes and desires and who turn their nose up at the very idea of attending a slave auction – not due to any kind of morality – but because the filth that are on display are not worth their attention or credits.

But the Consortium? Now they could offer _quality_. Some may not be interested in idiot slaves and want a highly educated engineer that can assist them on secret projects with no fear of leaks. The Consortium can provide that. Others want completely loyal bodyguards who they can use to intimidate their rivals and project power. Not an issue for the Consortium. Many want sexual partners to use however they please. The only questions the Consortium asks are species, gender, and age.

The Consortium simply _does not care_ what you do with slaves once they are sold. They only care about providing the highest possible quality, further tailored to your wishes. You could execute, abuse, or even free the slave and they would have zero issues with it. They are merely here to provide a service, and if you are satisfied, then their job is done.

It is… difficult to convey just how it feels for you to be handed a haptic display and flick through 'customization options' which are reminiscent of a hologame RPG. Except it isn't an artificial persona you are creating, but a living being you are purchasing. It's a surreal and dehumanizing experience with the ease of ordering a piece of furniture from the HoloNet.

The amount of detail one is allowed is staggering. It is entirely possible for one to order a red-skinned female twi'lek engineer, male chiss sniper, iridonian male zabrak biologist, or female human escort with red hair and green eyes… you get the idea.

The Consortium goes one step further, and allows the potential buyer to examine the slaves before going through with a final purchase, which can include physical strength and durability tests, educational tests, or sexual performance. The Consortium wants there to be nothing wrong, after all. Assuming the client is satisfied, the transaction will be completed and ownership will be transferred.

The cost of a slave varies, with the more specialized and exotic the slave, the higher the cost. The cheapest slaves cost one million credits, while the most expensive can reach up to fifty million. An expensive purchase, but it offers the closest thing to perfect slaves that are incapable of rebellion and literally bred for such a task.

The assortment of slaves includes all near-human and humanoid species, and a significant amount of other alien species. We suspect that the Consortium puts out notices for specific slaves they are interested in as well. I will also note that the Consortium does take special orders from clients, which are rare due to the sheer amount of options, but they do exist and are not necessarily for slaves either.

I… believe that gives a complete overview on the slaving operations in the Consortium. There are divisions that manage different aspects of cloning and development, but in all honesty, it doesn't really matter or change anything. Their functions have already been described accurately.

This entire organization needs to burn.


	3. Zann Consortium - Persons of Note

**SotP Addenda - Galactic Underworld, Beneath the Façade**

* * *

**PERSONS OF NOTE**

Within the Consortium there are a number of individuals beyond the big three (who will also be covered) who are worth investigating and bringing to light. They are largely managers and administrators of the Consortium and have become fairly integral to operations. All of these individuals are marked for investigation and potential dossier reports.

Cassian Lone: The more sharp-eyed Mandalorian analysts will likely wonder if the surname indicates a connection to the Mandalorian Clan Lone, one of the few that are not part of the Mandalorian Union itself for one reason or another. Research has confirmed that Cassian is indeed formerly of the Lone Clan, but he does not identify with any aspect of Mandalorian culture, as he left the clan when he was a teenager and fell in with a group of mercenaries.

As fortune had it, these mercenaries eventually joined forces with the Consortium and Cassian soon attracted the attention of several ranking figures and was offered the opportunity to join the Yellow Vests three years after initially allying with the Consortium, a position he gratefully accepted.

Over the past fifteen years he has continued distinguishing himself, participating in the most dangerous and vital missions to the Consortium at great risk to himself. He's lost his left hand and entire right leg in different battles (both replaced with cybernetics), and acquired a notable collection of scars from campaigns on dozens of backwater worlds. He has now ascended to Commander of the Yellow Vests, and is one of the primary advisors to Tyrell Zann and appraised of all major operations of the Consortium and the Yellow Vests.

Regardless of his affiliation, Cassian has the physique of a Mandalorian. He stands exactly one point eight meters and carries nothing short of a full arsenal on him at all times, particularly, disruptor rifle and mass driver rifle combos, with carbonite and thermal grenades. Older now, he has a graying beard and short haircut, and while his features have hardened, there is nothing that especially stands out about him appearance-wise, as the majority of his scars are under armor.

He has good working relationships with all major figures of the Consortium, Urai and Tyrell in particular. He ignores Tora, and is rather restrained when it comes to his opinion on Tlon Fett. He must find it ironic how involved Mandalorians are now in his life, even if he no longer considers himself one. He has no children and has an off-on relationship with another Yellow Vest officer, and both men appear to have known each other for years.

A final note of interest is that while Cassian is definitely _not_ a Mandalorian, he doesn't really seem to have any significant animosity to them, and interestingly it appears that Tlon Fett is making a _positive_ impression on the Mandalorians for him. Rather showcases the skewed morality of the Consortium when Fett can actually _impress_ someone.

EX-QT: This is one of the more unique individuals in the Consortium. We don't know who or what originally created EX-QT, but whoever it was obviously intended for it to function as some kind of assassin droid. The model is completely custom, and it actually has evolved itself to operate in 'shells' as it maintains several bodies from which it uploads itself to whenever it wants to do a particular task.

EX-QT was originally – amusingly – a bounty hunter of sorts, who seemed to grow bored of it and developed an interesting personality quirk – that of collecting and managing items. We don't know exactly how it made contact with the Consortium, but directly stated that it was impressed with the operation and wanted to learn more. At this point, Talia Zann was still in command, and understandably wary of a seemingly independent droid.

An interesting historical note about the Consortium is the fact that they are somehow very accepting of unshackled droid intelligences, having worked with the infamous bounty hunter IG-88 back during the formation of the Consortium (note: there were four iterations of the IG-88 series and it is unclear which one worked with the Consortium). They are aware of the benefits – and risks – such partners can bring. Talia extended a tentative offer to provide assistance, so long as it was reliable.

EX-QT accepted, and in the beginning, moved around the Consortium quite a bit until it settled into the role of Manager of Black Market Management, and is now responsible for planning, assigning, and deciding just what steps will be taken for the Consortium markets and how best to carry them out. It appears to enjoy the significant amount of data management the position offers, and will often unknowingly participate in the events using a protocol droid shell – which is, of course, heavily augmented to support weapon systems.

I am honestly not sure how dangerous this droid is, since it does not seem to really embrace violence and seems content in management. I wonder how much it actually cares about the Consortium, but unless another better offer comes along, it isn't going anywhere and its removal will definitely hinder their market operations.

Cynthia, the Executor: While technically a freelance bounty hunter, the Executor has been involved with the Consortium for nearly a decade, and it is fair to say that she can be considered one of their most reliable assets. Everyone is aware of the Executor's reputation, but not much about the woman herself – it took a surprising amount of effort on our part to piece together her history.

She was not, as we had suspected, trained as a freelance hutt assassin who went rogue. She is former _Imperial Intelligence_. We are still unsure how she managed to break the conditioning, and even more unsure why she left at all. She does not display any significant animosity towards the Empire, nor does the Empire seem to have some vendetta against her. The only reason we know for sure is that she keeps her bars as a memento. We had always assumed it was a trophy, but it appears to merely be her own.

Cynthia began taking contracts from the Golden Board early into her career, and has stated her preference for avoiding hutt contracts. She has always expressed a disdain for the entire species, and this actually matches up very well with her Imperial background. After her reputation began growing, she began being offered exclusive Consortium contracts which she has a one hundred percent success record in.

Tyrell Zann in particular took an interest in her, and we can only speculate as to why. It was initially believed it had to do with the fact that he definitely has a _type_ he is attracted to, though later information has dismissed this as a reason. The more likely reason is that he respects her efficiency, as well as her rather dramatic methods of killing targets – forcing them to their knees and killing them with a single shot to the back of the head. The Executor didn't earn her name for nothing, after all.

We were unsure why she slowly began working almost exclusively for the Consortium, but we recently discovered the fact that she made a deal – years ago – for the Consortium to grow a child for her. We didn't make this discovery until recently, but she's being raised covertly by Cynthia herself and another Defiler who we haven't been able to identify. Further digging into her past showed that she had a sister who died in an airspeeder accident, so the most likely explanation is that the clone is made from her sister's genetics – or at least looks like her.

Rather sentimental, and explains why Cynthia is so loyal to the Consortium.

In terms of her threat level, she is just as dangerous as always, if not more. The Consortium continues to fund pretty much every aspect of her one-woman operation, with her armor being made out of Mandalorian iron, and having her field mass driver sniper rifles and disruptor rifles. This collection does make up for her rather short stature, and the final appearance note of worth is that is she one of the few mirialans to not sport any facial tattoos, and is identifiable by her green eyes and black hair which is dyed with strands of silver.

Gabrial Uloi: This man is perhaps one of the most malicious within the entire Consortium. He is the manager of all slaving operations in the Consortium, so that should already tell you a lot of what kind of person he is. He is, unsurprisingly, a former slaver with a specialty in grooming. Tyrell Zann approached him and said his talents were being wasted, and invited him to tour the Consortium slaving operations on Spaarti. Gabrial joined on the spot.

Disgusting man.

Gabrial is a frail old human who looks exceptionally unconcerned with the fact that he looks like a sexual predator with his elderly features, groomed white beard, and unsettling eyes that never seem to blink. However, appearances can be deceiving as somehow Gabrial isn't a sexual predator of adults or children, and in fact, never touches any of the slaves.

What is unnerving about him is his intelligence. We are unsure exactly what, if any, education he has, but he has a deep understanding of slave mentality, parenting, child psychology, and child grooming. He has personally been the architect of all modern Consortium slaving doctrine and grooming curricula, and the Consortium owes much of its current slaving operations to his work.

He does not have combat training, nor carries any weapons from what we know. He is also in no relationships that we are aware of, and seems dedicated to serving the Consortium until he dies. However, he has recently been seen holding private conversations with a newly cloned child, who has more recently been following him around on Spaarti.

Since we can say with some confidence that his tastes do not involve children, the more likely explanation is that this child is a clone – perhaps of himself – that he is grooming to be his successor. We do not know right now, and if so, we likely will not for many years.

Rana Tu: The kaminoans have managed to find a haven in the Consortium, and the first one – and the one who keeps finding enclaves and refugees of kaminoans – was Rana Tu.

Yes, _the_ Rana Tu.

I remain shocked that he managed to slip the grip of the Alliance and Jedi, but I am somehow also not surprised that the Chief of Cloning Operations had a contingency that let him survive. He did, admittedly, seem smarter than his brethren, since he maintained his headquarters in the Rishi Maze and not Kamino itself.

If you're wondering how the Consortium has made such advances in cloning and genetics, that can be traced solely to Rana Tu himself. The kaminoan is brilliant, no one can objectively dispute that, and his brilliance within the Consortium is on full and horrific display. I know he gave the profilers nightmares since they didn't know how to correctly profile him, and I'm afraid that there can't be anymore light shone on it than already exists.

The continuing argument on if Rana sees non-kaminoans as legitimate beings and not walking collections of genetics is not settled, as he and Talia appeared to actually get along quite well, with Rana even making poor attempts at jokes at times. But we can say that the only time Rana shows _any_ sort of real emotion is when he is working.

I don't even think we can say that he has emotions. This is a kaminoan who is able to watch a twi'lek girl get tortured to death and make notes on a tablet while cocking his head curiously at the scene. It is like how we would see a droid being dismembered; it just doesn't affect us viscerally even if the droid simulates pain.

I think we should be careful about considering him a sadist – because that implies he takes _pleasure_ in what he does, and that simply does not happen with Rana unless he is in a room filled with gene-editing software. He is a geneticist at heart, and is responsible for the creation of the incredibly large library of genetic templates for cloning.

The challenge of taking a genome and shaping it to his will is something he takes a significant of pride in, though I don't know if we can even assign him a 'god complex,' as to him, he is simply doing what comes naturally to all kaminoans – life is to be shaped by their hands. Amoral bastards the kaminoans may be, but they're good at what they do.

Like all of his kind, he does not consider _any_ kind of clone something that is actually alive – though he rarely interacts with them outside of tests anyway. More recently though, he appears to have opened back up research into the cloning of Force-sensitives – and knowing the Consortium, they are going to give him whatever tools and resources he needs to make it a reality.

The ability to grow Force-sensitives without side-effects would turn the Consortium from merely an evil criminal organization into a galactic threat. This can simply not be allowed.

Samantha: Very rarely are the names of Defilers learned, or are necessarily relevant outside of certain contexts. But this is a notable exception. Samantha is not like other Defilers. She was a special project begun by Talia Zann shortly before she gave birth to Tyrell.

Samantha is a heavily modified human on a genetic level. She is faster and stronger than women and most men of her size, she stands at barely over two meters, dwarfing most individuals (including Tora, much to her annoyance) except large species like wookiees. Her appearance is that of what you would expect of a supermodel with flawless olive skin, cropped black hair, and deep blue, almond-shaped eyes.

She is also hyperintelligent for a human, testing far outside the standard range of even _Defilers_. She has received training in all specializations of Defilers, has expert knowledge of political science, anatomy, and combat surgery. She speaks Basic, Huttese, and Cheunh fluently, and is overall the perfect iteration of a human woman.

The thing is, we're unsure exactly _what_ is making all of this work. The most obvious theory is that there are alien genetics integrated into her – the fact that Rana himself worked on this project suggests this is likely, but there seems to be a piece missing, or the exact reason why Talia ordered her creation in the first place. Regardless, it does not change the facts.

Currently, Samantha is the personal Defiler to Tyrell Zann himself.

She acts as a mix between bodyguard, advisor, and hitman. Tyrell, and _only_ Tyrell can command her, as her control chip only seems to force her to accept orders from him. If this was intended by Talia or something Tyrell added himself is unknown. She has been personally responsible for staving off _six_ assassination attempts, and led the investigations and ultimate captures of the perpetrators.

The woman is dangerously intelligent and fanatically loyal to Tyrell, a fact which Tyrell seems to enjoy keeping to himself, as he gains great enjoyment from guests dismissing the towering woman behind him as an idiot bodyguard, and typically asks her for opinions of certain individuals or reactions to supply thoughts and observations that he otherwise would not have noticed.

Both of them are also in a romantic relationship. We attempted to learn some specifics of this, as both of them keep relatively quiet about it, but considering the deepening relationship between the two of them, it was likely only a matter of time. It is also highly atypical, and raises some questions about how much of this could be extrapolated to other Defilers – and how much is due to Samantha's unique situation.

Romantic relationships with Defilers – while not unheard of – are usually just sexual release with slaves or between other Defilers. They are _never_ with Consortium personnel, and _certainly_ not with the Zann family. Tora was supposedly aghast when she found out, and while we don't know what happened, we do know that Tyrell kicked her off his flagship and confined her to patrol duty for three months.

Returning to the relationship dynamic, we are unsure how much influence Samantha has on the relationship, and if Tyrell is genuinely in love with her or using her. While the simplest answer is the latter, there are several factors that make it appear less likely. The first is that Defilers are not slaves. They are incapable of betraying the Consortium, yes, but they are integral parts of the organization and highly respected and skilled. The power dynamic is not exactly that of master and slave, but superior and subordinate – for the most part. The control chips muddle the waters here significantly.

The second factor is that we cannot find a single instance of Tyrell treating Samantha badly or as anything less than a friend or confidant. He regularly requests her input on matters, has her supplement his blind spots, and seems rather amused by the fact that she is smarter than him on an objective level. There is very little evidence to suggest that this is something Tyrell is forcing on an unwilling Defiler, which is admittedly surprising.

Unless we have the opportunity to interrogate both of them, I suspect the details will have to remain speculation. In any case, she should be regarded as an extremely dangerous threat – and the fact that Tyrell never goes _anywhere_ without her means that any operation targeting the Iron Lord will also come into contact with Samantha.

Prepare accordingly.

Urai Fen, Enforcer to the Lord and Lady Zann: Urai Fen is one of the more fascinating characters within the Consortium because there is simply no one like him. His history prior to joining with Tyber Zann is largely a mystery, but due to his species essentially remaining ageless, he could be thousands of years old. From what we know of the talortai, they are a species largely confined to the planet of the same name in the far Outer Rim.

What is interesting is that when we approached the Jedi for information on this planet, they first asked how we knew of it, and then proceeded rather reluctantly to provide what they had on it. As it turns out, the planet is supposedly steeped in the Force, with the talortai believing that they exist to 'protect the planet from those who would take its power.' All talortai are Force-sensitive – including Urai – though how powerful he is is unknown, as the only hints of Force-sensitivity are his extremely fast reflexes.

It also appears that Talortai has been the site of several incursions by Jedi and Sith over the millennia, in a similar situation to the voss, although both parties inevitably pulled back as the talortai slaughtered their people. The mystery of the planet will remain, it seems.

Why or how Urai left his planet is unknown, and it was a subject that he _never_ discusses, even with his closest allies or friends. He bluntly and quickly shuts down all talk about his past before the Consortium, and something of note is that Planet Talortai is also free of Consortium assets, and he regularly has the Pirate Fleet patrol the systems around it, as if he is covertly trying to protect the planet.

For what purpose, we aren't sure. Urai is not especially sentimental, but could clearly have some kind of connection to his people he wants to preserve.

What strikes me as extremely curious is that of all the people in the Consortium, Urai simply does not _fit_ the mold of a criminal. He has a very defined sense of honor, such as fighting his enemies personally, and undertaking dangerous assignments with his soldiers, as well as fulfilling bargains and remaining loyal to your allies. He doesn't seem to care about credits, women, or even power.

He just… goes through the motions at times.

He isn't an idiot, but he lacks the charm that Tyber, Talia, and Tyrell Zann have. He lacks flair and appears to be enjoying his work less and less. He is blunt and to the point; preferring to simply eliminate targets over manipulating them. He couldn't talk his way into a deal without threats or just giving up.

Because when it comes down to it, Urai is a _warrior_. He isn't a diplomat, speechwriter, or crime lord. The best he could do when he was in charge of the Consortium was prevent the bad decisions from collapsing the organization and relying on others to supplement his blind spots. I feel like he _could_ become these things if he wanted… but he deliberately chooses not to.

In an organization revolving around the corruption of others, Urai Fen is oddly incorruptible. He does not, and _will_ not change. He has been the singular constant of the Consortium since its founding, and he is unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon. But it honestly seems like his heart is no longer in it, and he's doing this out of a sense of obligation and respect for Tyber Zann to ensure that his organization doesn't fall apart.

It does raise the question of what would have eventually happened to the Consortium if Talia Zann hadn't happened, and Tyrell hadn't followed her legacy. At some point, even an immortal would become tired of being shackled to a singular organization for centuries. There seems to be something more to Urai staying so connected, but we can't come up with a plausible reason for why that is.

He notably does not involve himself in the vast majority of business decisions within the Consortium, instead managing all military and fleet assets, as well as handling Defiler assignments. He attends the parties and events at times, but he is more often seen on Consortium assignments where there is likely to be fighting.

Now it is important to say that Urai Fen is one of the most dangerous opponents that exist in the galaxy. This is an alien potentially thousands of years old, who has fought Force-users throughout his life (Sith Acolytes of Palpatine and Silri are ones we can confirm), and has a kill count in the high hundred thousands.

He uses a variety of techniques in combat, most notably his twin talortai combat blades, which are likely made out of some kind of metal from his home planet and are sharpened to the point of being able to penetrate almost any armor. The few times Urai ran into Jedi, he easily killed them, including a Sentinel of the Militant Order (the Jedi in general had not encountered the Consortium previously).

His blades are also not his only weapon. He carries several pieces of stun equipment that are able to completely knock out almost any human or near-human species – which armor cannot stop. EMP bombs, mines, and equipment are also utilized. When deprived of his blades, he utilizes his strength extremely effectively, and is more than capable of fighting the best CQC experts.

From what we have seen, he is extremely difficult to kill, and regenerates light wounds in minutes, and heavier ones in days. We don't know if he can regrow limbs or other organs, but it is not inconceivable.

A final note is that he gets along surprisingly well with Tlon Fett, and Urai appears to be the one Fett respects most within the Consortium. Perhaps it is due to the fact that they are both warriors who disdain small talk and chatter. Perhaps it is because they are experts in the art of combat. Perhaps they view each other as practical. Whatever the reason, Fett is the one person of his Gra'tua that Urai seems to see as something of a friend.

Tora Zann, Lady of the Zann Consortium: I find it highly amusing that her title is 'Lady' when that is one of the descriptions that fit her least. Tora is the second child of Talia Zann and her only daughter. Younger sister to Tyrell, and from the beginning she had been considered a disappointment by pretty much every ranking member of the Consortium. Were it not for Tyrell, Tora might have ended up deposed by Urai had she taken sole command of the Consortium. Again.

She is an odd beast. She has significant mood fluctuations at times, she is arrogant, self-centered, and dismissive to those around her who she considers her lesser. She is best described as the rebellious teenager of the family, and in that age she quite regularly abused Consortium assets for drugs, unnecessary wealth, and slaves. Not enough to make a noticeable dent in the Consortium, but enough that Urai and Talia stepped in and attempted a course correction that seems to have only been partially successful.

She was pushed to find an outlet, and ended up becoming a rather skilled and dangerous soldier – with some improvements. She got every single kind of enhancement one could think of, replacing her limbs with cybernetic equivalents, neural implants synched to her weapons, applied genetic modification, and more. There is suspicion that these haven't improved her mental stability, but if so, it's not any more noticeable than normal.

The truth is that Tora Zann is something of a moron, and everyone knows it.

Any sort of influence or control she is given is largely ceremonial to assuage her ego while Urai and Tyrell assume control of the _actual_ Consortium. She doesn't participate in the business side of the organization, instead preferring to hold parties in her quarters with her harem of slaves. Tora is also a classic example of a nymphomaniac, and has reportedly has had hundreds of sexual encounters with men and women of all species, and, in fact, seems to seek out new and exotic sexual experiences.

This is understandably an issue, as when she isn't raping her slaves, she attempts to do the same to Consortium soldiers, which has resulted in Tyrell ordering a specific Defiler to watch her and intervene when she decides to sexually harass the personnel, something she is continually furious of. Though she does, for some reason, have an aversion to the Defilers in this regard. Possibly because they are the few who will not listen to her merely because she is a Zann.

Unfortunately, when this happens, she typically responds by taking out her anger on her slaves, which results in them either having severe injuries or in some cases killing them. In this, the Consortium doesn't care as slaves can be easily replaced, and if it keeps her aggressive tendencies in check, then all the better.

The sole area where Tora displays any kind of competence is in battle. She is a walking war machine, wears a specialized battle suit which contains a modular loadout that supports heavy laser weaponry, micro-missiles, and even a cage for a small ysalamir on the back. It also supports chemical dispensers or flamethrowers.

She has an affinity for explosives, and her primary weapon is a grenade launcher, though she will switch to a heavy mass driver cannon if that runs out of ammunition. She has close to no regard for her own safety, although admittedly is built to suffer as few injuries as possible. She is predictable and easy to out-strategize, but that also doesn't necessarily make her significantly less dangerous.

Ultimately, Tora is someone of note more for her heritage than because she is actually important. I suspect that if she were to die in any circumstance, no one in the Consortium would mourn her.

Tyrell Zann, the Iron Lord of the Consortium: If Talia Zann was the one who revitalized the Consortium, Tyrell Zann is the one who will define the legacy it leaves behind. While there is apparently some debate if Tyrell or his mother was the greatest leader since Tyber Zann himself, the fact remains that he has been one of the most respected and influential leaders of the Consortium in its entire history.

As a young boy, he had ambition to not only succeed his mother, but achieve even greater things than she did. He was determined to turn the Zann Consortium into the greatest criminal empire in the galaxy that no one would be able to touch, not the Alliance, not the Empire, _no one_.

At the insistence of his mother, he made a plan for his life and also like her, left the Consortium for a short time to expand his education and worldview. He acquired degrees in political science, general psychology, acting, and business management. He spent time as a high-ranking aide to several prominent senators at the time, spent time traveling the galaxy and visited several Jedi Temples, major political, and social hubs of the galaxy such as Corellia, Taris, and Coruscant, and of course, the places of the underworld including Nar Shaddaa, Nal Hutta, Tatooine, and more. He also has a singular acting credit (under a false name) in the hit holovid "_The 500_," a heist holovid following a team of criminals attempting to break into the vaults of the 500 Republica.

Tyrell played a minor crime boss, and his performance was praised for being 'authentic, intimidating, and flawless.' Tyrell often holds showings of the holovid at parties, and personally sends the director a thank you note and small sum of credits monthly. Tyrell has credited him with awakening his love of acting, and he covertly makes sure he receives near-unlimited funding for his projects in the future.

He's rather generous to his friends, I'll give him that. I wonder how they would feel knowing that their projects are funded by the most notorious criminal organization in the galaxy.

Tyrell eventually returned to the Consortium after fifteen years, throughout which he was apprised of Consortium developments and kept in contact with his mother and Urai. Upon returning, he was immediately given a full update on the operations of the Consortium and eased into taking command. Samantha was also assigned to him at this time.

Before Talia was diagnosed and placed into carbonite, both of them were working closely together and determining the future of the Consortium. I will note that Tyrell has never once mourned his mother because he is certain that she'll return and a cure will be developed, and when she returns, he wants her to find everything in good working order.

Upon taking full command of the Consortium with the full blessing of Urai, Tyrell began getting to work, and he has defined himself by his aggressive and merciless expansion and treatment of opponents. His title of the 'Iron Lord' was earned from his unrelenting expansion into the territories of the hutts and Black Sun. He has decided it is time for the Consortium to drive these organizations out of the Outer Rim, and he has shown his willingness to cripple them however he can.

The modern drug operations are a result of his policies, and he is slowly and methodically working to dismantle each hutt crime lord piece by piece. Ruthlessly cutting off their streams of revenue, assassinating their allies, sabotaging their equipment, and stealing their client base. The Black Sun, while they have not been hit hard yet, are preparing for the worst as they have found Consortium influence growing within their previously reliable bounty hunters, assassins, and freelancers.

Tyrell Zann is also known for executing his enemies – and those who have defied him – personally. He will hold a grudge for years, and isn't concerned with getting his hands dirty in some instances. Usually he will record the executions and send them to associates, or keep them as a personal playlist of his 'greatest hits,' so to speak.

He enjoys showing these off at events too, by the way.

Despite his more ruthless persona, Tyrell is described as exceptionally charismatic and charming, capable of capturing a room with his 'impromptu' speeches and friendly personality to his friends and guests. He's very good at making everyone he meets feel like a personal friend, and this makes him a very good diplomat, as well as upselling clients and talking people into purchasing the various products and services the Consortium offers.

It helps that his style is also distinct and eye-catching. He has the silver hair of the Zann family, which is sharply cut off at the neck, his eyes are sharp and brown, and he always presents himself as well-groomed and clean-shaven. He wears expensive, knee-length coats with fur collars – often hiding pistols and other holdout weapons inside. He wears no jewelry, but each piece of his attire is clearly of the highest quality and gives him an almost rugged appearance, more suiting of a crime lord than anything else.

This is perhaps to also take away from the fact that he's rather short, standing at only one point seven meters, although perhaps that adds to his aura of command, as Samantha dwarfs him in size – yet he still has command over her.

Yet quite a lot of this is, I think, an act the Tyrell puts on. In private, he's described as very different. He's much more reserved and focused. He has less tolerance for wasted speech and is highly decisive in his actions. He takes his position very seriously and surrounds himself with people to account for his blindspots who he believes are reliable.

He and his parents were very close, and he spent a lot of time with his father, Alyson Soro-Zann, before he was killed, who was also a notably reserved individual. After that he has made sure to remain very close to his mother, and is driven by a need to make her proud with what he has accomplished. Urai is also someone he considers essentially family, and as far as we know, no one else except maybe Samantha is considered such by him.

This does not extend to Tora who he privately despises and has considered stripping the name of 'Zann' from her due to her antics. The only reason he hasn't is because he's too busy and Tora has confined herself to nonessential areas, and Urai also covertly handles her since he feels that such actions would do more harm than good.

In short, Tyrell is an individual who is not to be underestimated under any circumstances. He is responsible for the continued actions, expansion, and atrocities of the Consortium and highly competent at this job. Considering the fact that he is taking on the GenoHaradan and managing to hold his own, we should be very careful with how we approach the removal of the Iron Lord.

* * *

**POLITICAL AND SOCIAL STANCES**

Templates, I swear.

As a criminal entity, the only political stances the Consortium really takes are those that ensure that their operations are not tampered with. They obviously push against campaign finance laws, regulations on businesses, and the usual. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they would prefer for the rule of law to be abolished as a whole, and the Triumvirate dissolved.

Now, in regards to what social views the Consortium holds, this is more nuanced. The Consortium quite obviously is a supporter of the slave trade and holds life itself as a commodity that is disposable and replaceable. The leadership in particular views their client base more akin to sources of revenue or tools than anything more. They have an exceptionally warped view of the galaxy and on life itself, which paradoxically does not really apply to anyone within the Consortium itself.

In fact, the Consortium is somehow one of the most inclusive criminal organizations in the galaxy, or entities in general. Species and gender are not really something taken into consideration, just do your job well and with competence. Tyber Zann himself believed the more aliens within the Consortium, the more effective they would be due to the different advantages each offered, whose weaknesses could also similarly be offset. He made several notable and deriding comments on the old Imperial tendency to treat aliens as second-class citizens. This attitude continues in the modern Consortium.

There are aliens of all species that populate the ranks of the Consortium, and a majority of Consortium demographics are non-humans, and include species which are often associated as criminals or outcasts such as weequay, kaminoans, rattataki, and so on. More attractive is that the Consortium doesn't care about previous criminal activities so long as they can do their jobs.

The point is that within the Consortium ranks, there is a surprising lack of prejudice, sexism, or racism that you may expect from such an entity. Even _droids_ are arguably given equal status if they prove themselves to be loyal and dedicated. It's bizarre to contrast with how they view slaves as disposable trash, even if the only differences are the chips in their heads – not to mention some of the slaves grown are smarter, stronger, and faster than _actual_ Consortium personnel.

I do not hold out hope that they will become aware of the irony of that.

* * *

**ECONOMIC BACKING AND SUPPORT**

The majority of their income comes from their rich client base which is relatively few for an organization as large as theirs, but makes up for it by paying far more on a per client basis. They make significant income from their various rackets and a sufficiently large amount from the black markets and Golden Board they sponsor. They are not backed by any other outside organization, and are completely self-sustaining.

There is very little else to note in this section. The only hope of stopping their revenue stream is to go after their client base, and we simply do not have the time and resources to go after every single rich creep in the galaxy.

* * *

**ALLIES OF NOTE**

Gra'tua be'haar Vemann'mando'ade: The emergence of Tlon Fett upon the Outer Rim came as a surprise to the Consortium, who largely ignored Mandalorians due to how isolated and impossible to penetrate their territory was. The fact that there was a new faction led by such a dangerous warrior caught the attention of Tyrell Zann and they set about observing Fett's Gra'tua and appraising their capabilities.

They did not actually approach the Gra'tua until years after Fett emerged, but after a certain point, they had seen enough and saw potential for an alliance of sorts between the two organizations – a first for both. Urai Fen was sent with a Defiler team to make official contact with one of the White Capes – an offer that Tlon was initially skeptical of. The initial conversation between Urai and Fett was apparently enough for Fett to later go and visit the Zann twins a few weeks later.

No one knows exactly what the four of them discussed, but both Fett and Tyrell announced a partnership which exists to this day. The details of which we can really only speculate at this juncture, though we can see the effect the Consortium has had on Fett's Gra'tua, especially in regards to drug and slaving operations.

The Consortium actually is a fairly frequent client of the Gra'tua, and buy drugs and slaves from them at regular intervals. Fett has supposedly also attended some of the gladiator matches and black markets the Consortium has hosted, and his Supercommandos have access to the Golden Board and regularly take contracts.

The Consortium will also sometimes hire the Supercommandos to undertake various tasks which tend to be direct strikes against Hutt Cartel targets. Both entities are working to destabilize the Cartels, and the Consortium seems more than happy to coordinate on that front, and it is speculated that both Fett and Tyrell have exchanged intelligence – particularly in regards to what Fett knows of the Mandalorian Union. What Tyrell does with this information is unknown, though it is unlikely that he will move against the Mandalorians.

But the Consortium definitely has plans for them. We know that Fett is likely planning to one day return to the Union and assume control. It would be wholly unsurprising to learn that they would also have the backing of the Consortium that day. A combination that I am unsure that the Union could stand against.

The Union is dangerous – but they are not invincible.

The Migrant Fleet of Dac: There is some debate over how to properly classify the relationship the Consortium has with the Migrant Fleet, as they are not traditional 'allies,' but are without a doubt clients of each other and openly do business. There have been multiple sightings of Defilers on the Migrant Fleet, and Tyrell Zann himself personally visited the High Admiralty once – what they discussed is unknown.

What _is_ known is that after that point, business between the two entities was strengthened and expanded. We've fortunately been able to pinpoint a good deal of their involvement, and it appears that the Migrant Fleet is only involved in the Black Markets and Slaving Operations and not any of the party side of the Consortium, as they clearly are not interested in it.

The Consortium pays the Migrant Fleet handsomely to host the results of their vong-inspired weapons and continually developed anti-Force technology. Outside of the Black Markets, the Consortium has likely bought some of the most advanced weapons and tech of the Migrant Fleet, as well as significantly invested in continuing ventures.

The Migrant Fleet also buys large quantities of slaves from the Consortium – _all_ of them Force-sensitives – and knowing what we know about how the Migrant Fleet treats those who can use it, they are most certainly being used in experiments and tests with their weapons. Alternatively, they're merely performing autopsies to determine if there are universal traits of those who use the Force. We do not know, and an operation on the Migrant Fleet itself would need to be conducted to confirm this.

Too many people are under the impression that the Migrant Fleet is ultimately harmless – and laughably, deserving of sympathy for their fate. They paint the image of a broken, wandering people flying across the stars and play on their tragedy to dismiss questions. But make no mistake, the Migrant Fleet is fanatical, ruthless, and pragmatic to a fault.

They want to purge the galaxy of the Force and all who use it. They will fail, but we continue to ignore and underestimate them at our own peril. Perhaps we should respect the largest standing fleet in the galaxy a little more, yes?

* * *

**ENEMIES OF NOTE**

The Hutt Cartels: Saying that the Hutt Cartels and the Zann Consortium don't get along is saying that the Jedi and Sith have philosophical differences. While technically true, that fails to accurately convey the context of _why_ it is that way. Tyber Zann and Jabba had a long-standing feud after they both attempted to betray the other, and this has not really died over time.

The modern Consortium considers the hutts as petty, ineffective, thuggish, and incompetent criminals who pander to the lowest and most desperate, and are mocking of their clearly inferior forces and technology compared to the Consortium. But the fact is the Cartels still have more manpower, territory, and credits than the Consortium and are – more to the point – not yet intimidated by the Consortium, even if they are growing more concerned.

The Cartels, for the most part, have been able to ignore the Consortium, though this has started to change now that the Consortium is actively targeting their drug and arms operations and corroding their power base through cheap drugs and weapons, and conducting assassination ops on minor hutt allies and clans. The Consortium is going about this conflict intelligently – they are isolating minor hutts and taking them out, while using Fett's Gra'tua to further weaken the various Cartels.

The only major hutt of note who has sounded the alarm is Tuchanka the Hutt, who is coincidentally the one who took control of Jabba's remnant criminal empire following the Yuuzhan Vong War and turned it into one of the most powerful cartels in the Outer Rim. Tuchanka is something of a legend among certain species and a celebrity within the Cartels.

Tyrell Zann has also openly declared his intention to 'dismantle the legacy of Jabba and all associated with him.' Which was, supposedly, met with uproarious laughter when it was played before a meeting of Cartel leaders.

Laughter which has begun to die as the hutts realize just how dangerous the Consortium has become. The major ones are still insulated, and Tuchanka has begun making changes to his own forces and security. He's now surrounded by a small army of bodyguards, has all of his food tested for drugs, and has heavily restricted who can enter his palace.

He's also worked on providing extensively more security to his own operations, and posted a bounty which will reward those who kill Consortium personnel, and personally sponsored a bounty of fifty million credits for the head of a Zann. Urai also has a bounty of forty million credits.

The point is that eventually there will be major conflicts between the Consortium and Tuchanka the Hutt, and depending on the outcome, it may very well decide who will control the majority of the Outer Rim. We can confirm at least that the GenoHaradan are not working with Tuchanka or contacted him at all.

While I can't blame them exactly, this isn't exactly a case of two criminal empires fighting each other and weakening themselves. One is clearly not like the other, and like it or not, Tuchanka is the one most likely to enter an open war soon, and if he loses… well, it's not going to be good for anyone. The status quo is better than a dominant Zann Consortium.

The Black Sun: The history between the Consortium and Black Sun is much less hostile than the hutts, but it would be accurate to say that, at best, there is a cautious respect between the two organizations. Or was, until the Consortium began moving on Black Sun territory and actively sabotaging their operations on a military and political level.

In some ways, Black Sun has been working to reform their image over the past few decades into less of a criminal organization, and more into a private security company. They still carry out arms deals and fund the drug trade, but the majority of their businesses have some legitimacy to them, enough where they had an actual lobbying presence in the Senate.

Intruding on the political sphere, however, is seen as a threat to the Consortium, and they have gone to certain lengths to target and mitigate any allies the Black Sun is attempting to make in the Senate – and succeeding, as recently the Black Sun was blacklisted from lobbying and approaching the Senate directly – a significant win for the Consortium (and most people, honestly).

The Vigos responded by declaring their intention to remove the scourge of the Consortium from the galaxy by any means necessary. They have reached an agreement with Tuchanka to fund his operations directly dealing with the Consortium, reached out to the Empire to establish an intelligence agreement regarding the Consortium, and as we recently learned, they were contacted by the GenoHaradan who are providing their own assistance.

In addition, they are hiring small armies of elite and established private armies and bounty hunters and massing them deep within Black Sun territory for an unknown purpose. It is likely that they are saving them for the perfect moment, but the amount of credits they are spending is staggering, and emphasizes just how badly they want to destroy the Consortium.

They are worth watching, as they are potentially the main force behind Tuchanka and could mean the difference between victory and defeat. We also have to assume that Tyrell knows of this buildup and is planning accordingly.

The Fellan Imperium: If there has been one consistent failure of the Zann Consortium, it is the continued attempts to penetrate the Empire and failing spectacularly. The incredibly sterile society of the Empire is simply not compatible with the Consortium, and if planets start experiencing drug epidemics, gang violence, or suspicious activity, that isn't _normal_, and is investigated immediately.

The Empire has absolutely zero issue with deploying the Stormtroopers to quell gang wars, and then interrogating the survivors with Inquisitors. They have no issue with pulling junkies off the streets and extracting the names of dealers. They are capable of ruthlessly dismantling a Consortium cell in _days_, and it is possible that after dozens of attempts, Tyrell Zann is figuring out that the Empire just isn't going to be fertile ground for the Consortium.

They maintain strict control over the HoloNet, and playing cute games like using proxy sites to get around bans will get Imperial Special Forces deployed or, if you're especially unlikely, the Imperial Knights. Something the Consortium has learned the hard way several times. For once, the draconian control the Imperials exercise has produced something good.

The government is close to impossible to significantly corrupt, as the higher one rises in the ranks, the more scrutiny from Imperial Intelligence and the Inquisitors there is – and they love _nothing_ more than stamping out corruption. Not to mention that thanks to continued meddling, the Empire has placed a bounty out for any information on Consortium operations in Imperial Space, and encourages any bribe attempts to be immediately forwarded to Imperial Intelligence.

Imperial Intelligence has also beaten them at their own game several times, by setting up honeypots that the Defilers took the bait from, and subsequently used them to first locate, and then assassinate three Defilers before the Consortium realized what was going on. There haven't been any blatant bribery attempts since then.

Extortion is also less effective than one might think, as the structure of the Empire makes it impossible to leverage your position outside of your own specialty, and there is _so much_ constant scrutiny that acting out of character – even subtly – is going to attract the attention of Imperial Intelligence who are going to bust the operation – and usually the person being extorted, since it often involves crimes against the Empire.

The Empress has sarcastically thanked the Consortium for helping expose the criminals in their midst, turning even that vector of penetration into something exploited by the Empire. At this point, the Consortium has given up – and put the Empire on notice of the organization as a whole.

And yes, they did enter into a limited intelligence sharing agreement with the Black Sun. That alone should tell you just how much they hate the Consortium.

The GenoHaradan: We do not know how long the GenoHaradan have been watching the Consortium, but it has apparently reached a point that is a threat to galactic stability. They would not be revealing their presence otherwise. We still don't know exactly what triggered this kind of response, because it's definitely not based in any sort of morality.

Perhaps Tyrell Zann is too competent for his own good?

Unimportant, and this will likely go down as beneficial for us because we will get to observe what happens when the GenoHaradan are _confirmed_ to be active. As far as we know, this is in the very early stages, since we were not officially informed of their involvement until late into this operation.

We know that there have been at least two assassination attempts on Tyrell Zann by the GenoHaradan, and both have been thwarted, which is actually not unusual for the GenoHaradan. Disposable assets are typically sent first to appraise reactions and responses. It would not be surprising if the GenoHaradan was privately funding Tuchanka and the Black Sun while they determine a permanent solution to the Consortium.

Because we know from past experience that when the GenoHaradan strikes, _everything_ comes crashing down for those who have earned their ire. We already know the GenoHaradan has acquired full records of Tyrell's little galactic journey, and their actual operations right now appear to be data gathering.

Knowing them, I suspect they are going to identify the major clients of the Consortium and assassinate them simultaneously and sever their primary revenue streams all at once. Which is something easier said than done, as Tyrell suspects – if not knows – that there is someone more dangerous than the hutts and Black Sun targeting him and the Consortium.

We are waiting to see how he adapts to this, but it isn't out of the question that he may begin providing protection to clients for all the good that will do. However, an issue that could very well put the Alliance in a difficult position is the sheer number of Consortium clients that live within, or have business with the Alliance.

If the GenoHaradan carries out a decapitation strike against Consortium clients simultaneously, that will do more than merely _destabilize_ the Alliance – is could send it into chaos. The economy would enter into a recession, if not crash outright. The public will be thrown into chaos when it comes out that celebrities and media stars that they admire were actually clients of such a reprehensible organization. The Senate will be paralyzed and literally everyone will eviscerate anyone with the slightest connection to the Consortium.

And that will only be the _start_. Imagine what will happen when the mass investigations are demanded and the past of each and every senator is uncovered. _Everything_ could be exposed, because this time, money won't be enough to protect them unless they run. Worst-case scenario is a collapse of the government entirely, with a military takeover.

You know, reading all of this back, I wonder if that would be better in the long-run. The Alliance is compromised, and has been for some time. If not the Consortium, it's the Black Sun, Exchange, Cartels, numerous criminal syndicates, businesses, the obscenely wealthy, the Jedi, anyone with any shred of influence or wealth who wants to have a say on Alliance policy.

Perhaps a cleansing is warranted.

* * *

**OPERATIONS IN THE GALACTIC ALLIANCE**

It's probably time to bring up the issue which has been rather obvious, but also not specifically addressed until now – how much this relates to the Alliance.

The bad news is that the most important clients of the Consortium are within the Alliance. They aren't making their money from their operations in the Outer Rim – those are just designed to acquire influence and territory while mitigating that of their enemies. It isn't to say that they don't have rich criminal clients in the Outer Rim – just not as many as elsewhere.

By now you should understand the kind of people the Consortium attracts. The wealthy and influential. The ones who don't care about laws or morals, or who, at best, see it as an obstacle to overcome. The ones who use and abuse their power to get ahead by any means necessary. The ones who think they are _better_ than the common galactic citizen.

This shouldn't be a surprise in retrospect.

Democracy is said to be the worst form of government, but I would argue this is a gross misunderstanding. Democracy is the easiest form of government to subvert. The problem of Consortium influence, which extends to a good portion of Alliance business elite and much of the Senate, is not just limited to them. I guarantee that the Consortium is only one entity that these people do business with – perhaps the one they have the best working relationship with – but far from the only one.

Out of curiosity, we took the profile of one of the participants at one of the events the Consortium threw, and decided to perform a deep background check on. He was the galactic Senator to Naator, a Mid-Rim planet which is largely ignored and unimportant, who passes along various pieces of information to the Consortium in return for protection and political assurance. His 'wife' is a custom-ordered slave who he likes to parade around.

This is the surface level. We decided to go deeper. He is far from the only one on the planet who is under Consortium influence, and he's directly _responsible_ for introducing many of his friends to the Consortium, and now all of them are valued clients who buy arms, drugs, and slaves without anyone the wiser. We kept going and going, and for this _one planet_ over twenty percent of all government administration was compromised in some way by the Consortium.

We didn't bother going beyond the one planet. We already knew what we were going to find.

The Consortium exposes an ugly reality of the galaxy – that if given the chance, many people will throw away whatever values they supposedly hold for power, money, sex, or drugs. For thrills or exclusivity. To brag and boast; to show off. In this, the ultimate amoral irony of the Consortium shows itself. In a galaxy where most people are supposedly good, the Consortium should never be able to function.

Ultimately, the Consortium is providing services. Services which too many people are accepting without thinking. And it's not because of ignorance. These people know what they are doing. They know what they're propping up by going to their parties and buying their products. They knew.

They just don't care.

I don't know if it can be fixed without bringing the entire house of cards down. None of us do.

* * *

**COUNTERMEASURES AND NECESSARY RESPONSE**

We held a mock vote.

Sixty-seven percent of us voted to let the GenoHaradan do their thing and put the pieces back together after.

The rest voted to come up with some kind of plan.

Since this is our job, and suggesting "that we let the GenoHaradan execute whoever they want" isn't going to fly, we tried to come up with a way to purge the influence of the Consortium from the Alliance in a way that won't destabilize the Alliance.

First order of business – the AIS. The Consortium deliberately avoids antagonizing intelligence and military services, but that doesn't mean there aren't moles here. Get the Jedi involved and perform systematic interviews with all of our staff and at minimum, AIS Command. If there is Consortium influence, we need to purge it _right now_.

Second, we reach out to the Empire and let them know how deep this goes. They take the Consortium seriously, and both our governments are allies through the Triumvirate, so they should have some incentive to help us. We keep this channel open until the Consortium is purged one way or another. If we get lucky, the GenoHaradan reach out and we can approach this as a coordinated unit.

Third, we get the President on board. Anti-corruption is her thing, and while we all joke about her being a spineless naïve girl who is way too optimistic about the nature of the galaxy, I guarantee she'll allow us the authority to take the necessary actions here to purge the deep corruption in the Alliance. Yes, she'll be less than thrilled – especially since she already dislikes many of our operations, but I cannot realistically see her refusing to do _anything_ about this. The public still adores her, and this will be absolutely crucial going forward. Especially since she is likely going to need to suspend the government when the hammer falls.

Forth, we get the Jedi involved. This kind of thing is right up their alley and when they realize just what the Consortium is doing, I bet the Militant Order is going to be livid. We'll need the Jedi anyway for their Force capabilities, as there is going to be a lot of interrogation going on. I guarantee the Jedi will be more than willing to help. If nothing else, tell Undien there will be one less entity working to stop his own political machinations.

With all of this in place, we begin the creation of the web. We identify everyone we know has done business with the Consortium and build a database until we can't find anyone else. Then we systematically arrest them in groups. Some big fish go down first, preferably a mixture of businessmen and politicians. Get the media talking and put the name of the Consortium out there. We begin selectively releasing evidence of what the Consortium is doing.

The public gets riled up. Our good President promises action. Lo and behold we nail the second round. As long as we can do this – and wait in time for new and _secured_ elections to be held for political positions – we should be able to achieve this without completely destabilizing the Alliance and slowly but surely cutting off the revenue of the Consortium.

In the meantime, we send Alliance Special Forces and the Jedi after known Consortium military assets. It will ultimately culminate in what will hopefully be a joint Imperial-Alliance-Jedi invasion of Salucami, Spaarti, and anywhere else they set up shop. During this period, we'll hold off operations against Tuchanka and the Black Sun. Let them continue to bleed the Consortium.

If all goes well – and this is admittedly unlikely – the Consortium will be purged, the Senate will at least not be composed of criminals, and the President, AIS, Jedi, military, and all of the clean senators come out looking like heroes and everyone is happy. Maybe the GenoHaradan will even send us a thank you note.

Alternatively, we could just let the GenoHaradan do their thing.

Up to you.

* * *

**CONCLUSION**

When all of us began this assignment, we were all hoping that it would be enough to get the Senate to actually take some action against the Outer Rim. We didn't think that there were any major differences between major criminal organizations – Cartels, the Exchange, Black Sun, you name it. The Consortium was just another criminal syndicate in a galaxy of them, they were bad, but no worse than any of the others.

We know now how untrue that is. I won't whitewash the Cartels or Black Sun here, or the thousands of criminals and rapists that permeate the Outer Rim. But for the hutts, there is a certain incompetence around them and they rise and fall with frequency, the Black Sun has cut back, even if they are criminals at heart. The Exchange is ultimately a collection of poor thugs and the desperate.

The Consortium is worse. And they have done more than that – they have highlighted the rot that exists within the galaxy. Rot that we continue to blind ourselves to and lie to others that it can be controlled – that it can be fixed – when in truth, we can't confront just how corrupt everything has become. If action is not taken, this rot will only continue to spread.

I have read many definitions of the word 'evil.' It's often dismissed nowadays as a word without meaning, thrown around to simply mean 'bad.' It's a subjective word, a concept that can never be objectively defined even if it is easy to apply to things we find reprehensible.

Why is the Consortium _evil_?

One definition stuck with me that applies here. Evil is the 'absence of empathy.' And the Consortium is devoid of any empathy whatsoever. They don't care about the lives they destroy, the worlds they put in danger, the people they kill, the millions they enslave before taking their first breaths.

They torture while only taking notes and appraisals. They rape and discard without any extra thought, because they know that if their slave bothers them, they can just dispose of them and get a new one like a machine. They treat life without meaning; not because they are necessarily sadists or enjoy doing it… but just because they don't see those they abuse as _real_. They don't see them as anything more than tools to use, collections of DNA and genetics to derive pleasure from, or amusement to toy with at their leisure.

The Cartels? The Exchange? They likely derive _some_ pleasure from their actions. They are driven by emotions. They kill because of credits, or to take revenge. Their actions are derived from emotional foundations, which include selfishness. Or maybe it is for their brethren or to pay a debt.

The Consortium does not even do _this_; every action they take is taken on the soulless basis of completing a business transaction. They will terminate an entire cloning line if one genetic sequence is flawed. They will allow drug addicts to overdose if it will increase their chances of breaking the drug stranglehold their rivals control. They will grow slaves for the singular purpose of ending their lives.

And they don't care.

They don't _feel_.

Does that make them more evil than the alternative? I don't know. Consider it up for debate.

Regardless, the fact remains that the Consortium is a soulless organization devoid of any shred of empathy. I will personally state without any ambiguity that they are evil.

They are an evil that serves those who are as evil as they are.

Very rarely do I – or any of us – consider all within an organization incapable of redemption. But there are no excuses here; there is no redemption for those who tie themselves to the Zann Consortium.

Kill them all.


End file.
